With You
by Eternal White
Summary: A fairy-tale-like story of a young princess longing to get back home and the boy who can help her find her way there. InuKag
1. Beginnings

**Disclaimer** – To make this short and simple, this is officially the disclaimer for this entire story. So, without further ado, I do not claim any rights to Rumiko Takahashi's _Inuyasha_ or any of the characters present in said story. Amen.

**A/N **- Alrighty then, I have practically nothing to say, so just make a note that any and every flashback sequence will be marked with ()()()()() at the beginning and ()()()()() at the end. Not so hard to remember, now is it? And, before you read, my apologies fort any grammatical and/or spelling errors that you might find in here. I actually just started revamping this story and stabbing every mistake I can find, but my English skills probably aren't that great in the first place. : D Oops?

With You

Chapter 1

Oh, the Woes

Kagome groaned miserably as she pressed her forehead to her knees in place of knocking it on the brick wall. Or, should it be said, the _moldy_ brick wall. _Eew_… 'Why, in the name of nobility, am I still here?' was one of many questions stumbling around in her head. The castle guards really should have been out looking for the princess of their own kingdom. That's what she was: a princess and a priestess. That's what she had been, at least, until she was unfairly kidnapped and tossed into a dark, dismal, and ever-so-stereotypical dungeon cell.

Kagome dropped wearily onto the stone floor, picked up her favorite black rock, and scratched another disproportional rodent onto the dull surface of the granite. She was downright _bored_.

Tugging her sleeves over her fingertips, Kagome shook her head and shivered slightly. Speaking of the castle, it was a great deal comfier there; there was always something warm and fuzzy conveniently bunched up in a cupboard when one was cold. There weren't exactly a whole lot of warm, fuzzy things here.

Environs aside, Kagome was, to begin with, at a loss of just how whoever had miraculously managed to kidnap her had done so. Mom had always said that their castle was more secure than any other in this part of the world.

"Hey, Souta, can you tell Mom I'll be outside, please?" Kagome asked her younger brother, ruffling his hair as she passed.

Souta shot her a disapproving frown. "But didn't she tell you that before you did anything else, you had to-"

"I'll do it later," she interrupted, continuing to walk away. "I promise." She'd have plenty of time to study when she got back. Just one more glimpse of sunlight before both her and Mr. Sunshine hit the sack was all she wanted.

"But, _Sis!_" whined the younger of two with exaggerated shaking of the head. "I guess I can tell her…"

"Thanks, Souta!"

Kagome skipped up the marble steps leading to her room and gripped the brass door handle. She tried repeatedly to turn it, but it wouldn't budge. Her brow furrowed indignantly. _Damn thing…should have asked for a replacement weeks ago. _"Souta!" she stepped back from the door and barked, "_Sooooouta_!"

"_What_!" came the distant reply.

"Can you come here for a second, please?"

"Err, not now!"

She paused, curled her lip, and shouted, "Why? What are you doing?"

"Stuff!"

Kagome sighed in defeat and retreated to the front entrance; little brothers will be little brothers.

Once she reached the large stone doorway, Kagome inched past the snoring gateman, resisting the cruel temptation to shout "BOO!" in his ear, and rushed off across the grounds.

On one dreadfully miserable day so very long ago, a younger, smaller Kagome had burst out those doors and ran through the grounds until she had found the quietest, most forlorn of places and sat down to be alone. So, naturally, that place was precious to her.

This _place_ of hers was actually a fairly small hill near the boundaries: barely big enough, in her opinion, to even earn the title of 'hill.' It wasn't tall or wide, and it was barely even _round_, but it was quite pretty. In the spring and summer months, tiger lilies projected through the untamed grass, and purple and white lilacs littered themselves throughout. It being late fall, only the withering grass and a few sparse dandelions remained.

A satisfied breath drifted through the thick evening air as Kagome languorously trudged through the grass. Her sixteenth birthday had been only one month ago, and the solitary drawback was the constant pestering of her overprotective mother about marriage and things of such nature. Quite frankly, she had little to no desire to get married anytime within the next three or four years. The average girl was engaged before eighteen or nineteen, but Kagome was never one to do things the _normal_ way. Besides, love was something that she didn't feel for any male right then. Any except Souta, that is.

But oh, how her mother pushed the idea. She pushed it to Kagome, Kagome pushed it off the nearest cliff. Her mother was set on her marrying a prince of sorts, and a wealthy one at that. Kagome knew that she was indeed a mother and, therefore, acted they way she did purely by instinct, but the fact that her mother was supporting that crazy law the council was trying to pass that _required_ her to marry a prince was a little upsetting. It was all simply ridiculous, if you asked her.

Kagome blinked hard to stop her flow of thought; this wasn't the type of thing she enjoyed dwelling on when she didn't need to.

Kagome tugged her shawl tighter over her shoulders. Was it just her, or was that breeze a little sudden? She shook her head and gave it no further thought.

Ah, it was nice to be alone for once…

…or so she thought.

Kagome froze as a rough hand clamped over her mouth and a fold of prickly material pulled over her eyes. "Don't make any noise unless you want to get yourself in trouble, alright?"

Kagome nodded and attempted fruitlessly to gulp down the cold lump forming in her throat. Another rough hand gripped her upper arm and led her quickly down the hill. She could feel the familiar sensation of tears rising, but she refused to consider crying. Risking the anger of this moody thug didn't sound like the best of ideas…

Her eyes snapped open from under the blindfold. She had to _sneeze_…!

Kagome officially deemed herself very, very pathetic.

She devoured what stray nips of willpower she had and bit her lower lip. She could hold in a sneeze, couldn't she?

One…two…three…

"Tch…!" The guard turned slightly to face her; she couldn't see him, but she could feel his eyes boring through the blindfold.

"What was that?" he asked her in an irritable tone. _ Aw, great, the snippy one…_

Kagome shifted uncomfortably. "A mouse?"

"Is that so?" he replied, sounding annoyed to some point. A few other voices could be heard sniggering quietly among themselves.

"Well?" he pressured impatiently.

"It was! I swear! I think I saw it run that way." She raised her arm and pointed randomly.

A pregnant pause stretched around them before the burly man spoke. "Shut her up. She's just being annoying," he grumbled and turned away from her.

Something hard and heavy struck the back of Kagome's head. She slumped listlessly to the ground as her vision went from very dark to very black.

Kagome groaned at the memory, or what she had of it, and pressed her fingertips to her temples. Beyond the point of being knocked out, she didn't remember anything. Her sandals had gotten lost somewhere along the line, and she still didn't know what they'd done with her poor old shawl; that one had been from her long-deceased grandmother.

This experience was steadily climbing to the top of her 'most horrible times in my life' list. There was only one day in competition with it for first place… but she'd recalled enough bad memories for one day.

"I've been in this cell for what, 3 weeks?" she glanced despairingly at her wall chart. Would she _ever_ get out?

Honestly, though—if she didn't escape this pathetic little cell soon, she was going to end up certifiably insane. There _had_ to be some way out. Then again, maybe there wasn't; she might never escape from this hole, she might end up dying in here, and-

No! No. She _wasn't_ going to die in there, and she _was _going to get out, even if she had to resort to eating her way through the walls to do so.

Kagome only hoped she didn't lose her sanity in the process…

Inuyasha panted as he dashed through the crowded village streets, tightly grasping his 'borrowed' food within his claws. Not that he planned to return it or anything, he just preferred to use the term 'borrowed' instead of 'stolen' because, actually, he wasn't _really_ a thief… But hey, he didn't exactly have any money to buy food with, so he had to resort to 'borrowing' it.

It wasn't his fault he didn't have the money; no one would give him any. He couldn't get a job because there wasn't a single good soul that would hire him - no one would have a _hanyou_.

Even starting a business of his own was completely out of the question. He didn't specialize in anything, he wasn't a farmer or a trader, and people would have just continued to purchase their goods elsewhere anyway.

And he _would_ _not_ just run out into the woods and kill and eat the first thing he saw. Just about everything in the bush these days had rabies or some other crazy disease, and, personally, he didn't fancy being the idea of being diseased.

So, what was his only choice--his last resort? 'Borrowing' from the local villagers.

Inuyasha had waited for the perfect moment, and it had finally come. The orchard-keeper had just left his fruits stand to argue with his angry business rival across the village road. All he had to do was run up and snitch what he came for and get away before anybody spotted him playing thief.

He took a deep breath and set his eyes on the prize. "Ready…set…go!" seven-year-old Inuyasha murmured as he dashed from his hiding spot and made a beeline to the apple basket that the obese orchard keeper had been tending.

It was right there, just a few more inches away from him. A little more and he'd be able to grab it-

"Hey, you! What do you think you're doing?"

Inuyasha froze.

"Hey!" the man shouted as he started back to his stand upon realizing what the dog-eared boy was out for.

Oh dear. Wasn't this the part where he ran?

Inuyasha snatched two plump apples and ran for the bushes near the side of the beaten road. He'd be safe on the other side.

"Gotcha!"

Or not. "You little runt! What do you think you're doing with my apples, eh!" the orchard keeper barked as he grabbed one of the tiny white ears poking out from Inuyasha's hair.

Inuyasha gave a pained screech and clenched his fists as the man dragged him scruffily over to the other side of the shrubs. "Let go! That _hurts_! Let go of my ear!" he screamed as he kicked at the man's legs.

The man ignored him, grabbed him by the arms, and threw him to the ground outside of the village boundaries; his head smashed against a protruding rock.

He closed his eyes and hissed in pain as the rock gashed the back of his head and the apples he grasped so tightly fell to the feet of his pursuer. His consciousness remained long enough for him to hear the man's last comment.

"And don't come back to this village, you filthy hanyou!"

Flash

His jaw stiffened, and he shook his head. Not pleasant thoughts.

Inuyasha chuckled as he glanced at the old farmer running after him. "Hmph," he scoffed at the pace of the little man. He spared a second glance behind him to find that the city officials were tagging along as well.

He sneered; they were only human, and he was half demon. They would never catch him.

So he kept running on his merry way, heading towards the river. He'd done this a million times, so it had essentially become second nature – with the exception of being chased by that many guards… usually there less. Why so many?

"Doesn't matter." He shrugged indifferently.

He was almost to the river anyway; all he had to do was go between those two cottages ahead then take a flying leap across the river. Then he'd be-

The sharp point of an arrow skimmed his left shoulder and several more zipped past him. It wouldn't have bothered him _as_ much if the arrows had come from behind him, where all the guards had been following from, but they hadn't. They'd come from in front.

Inuyasha was considerably annoyed. They'd never actually devised any plans to capture him before, so why now?

He dodged another flock of arrows and veered his course to the right instead of trying to run right through. Only to find that they were there too, and they were also hiding out to his left.

He cursed under his breath. He really didn't want to kill all of them, but he would if he really _really _had to. Either that or be captured himself, which wasn't an option.

So he resorted to just running away from them; he could get past easily.

Maybe.

Kagome frowned and grabbed her rock to cross out another escape plan; she hadn't thought of anything reasonable yet.

She'd considered bribing the guards to let her out by assuring them that if they could help her escape, she'd give them gold, silver, or whatever else they wanted. And, of course, she would have given them some, but not much. They seemed like pretty greedy people. But she eventually passed that plan off as ludicrous.

Chiseling her way through the wall was another option. If she worked at it day and night, she might be out of there in a few weeks, but she figured that the guards would have found her out before she even made a hole the size of a peanut. Besides, it sounded tiring, so she scrapped that plan.

She figured she could always scream 'FIRE!' until somebody let her out of there, but really, the guards here weren't _that _stupid…

Kagome eventually concluded that she might have to go with her original plan of chewing right through the walls. Ah, that sounded like loads of fun…

She sighed; her ideas were snowballing downhill.

Kagome soon resumed banging her head against the wall. At least she didn't have to think so hard when she did that; but after one knock she heard some commotion outside her cell door. It was nearly inaudible from where she was sitting, so she stood and padded her way across the cold floor to press her ear to the door.

"…Kusaki and Terashi. All of you are needed immediately in the second northeastern village! They're having some trouble with a hanyou boy, and backup is needed as soon as possible!" an older male voice shouted.

"With the hanyou, sir? Haven't they already made the plans, and-"

"Just do as you're told, Kusaki." The older man said.

Kagome stepped back from the door and put her fingers to her lips. Could they really have that much trouble with a hanyou? Why did they want to catch him, anyway?

She shrugged it off; she should probably get some sleep...

Tottering back to her bed, she slipped her legs under the sheets and let the rest of her body slide down with them.

Ah…sleeping was probably her favorite thing to do. It wasn't so cold then.

Not to mention that it was usually the most peaceful thing - emphasis on the word 'usually' because right then she couldn't sleep at all. There was an irritating tapping and scraping against the wall next to her that was keeping her awake.

After laying for at very least ten or fifteen minutes and trying to block out the noise, she gave an impatient growl and turned a glare on the wall.

"Hey," Kagome snapped, "stop it right now. I'm not kidding."

Amazingly enough, it stopped. She hadn't even expected to be heard.

She sat up in bed and focused her attention on the wall as if expecting it to do something incredible. She leaned closer and trained her hearing on it. There it was – the little scraping noise! Except it was a bit different this time. Earlier it had sounded like chiseling and scratching, but now it just sounded like… like two rocks sliding against each other.

Kagome frowned and called to whoever was on the other side, "Um, hello?" No response. "Hey…! Is anybody over there?" She leaned down quickly, pressing her ear to the wall and awaiting an answer.

"Just a second…!" came a strained old voice.

Wow - an answer. The world was pretty exciting today…

"Got it!"

"Got what? Got what?" Kagome questioned as she leaned lower, toward the voice.

"This!"

She knelt down by the wall, expecting once again some sort of miracle or strange happening, but nothing changed.

"I think…" She stopped speaking to watch a brick slide from its place in the wall and drop onto the floor. Kagome blinked in surprise and jumped back as an old, yet feminine hand extended from the new hole in the wall, waiting to be received.

"Good evening - I am called Kaede. And what is your name, child?"

She was stunned. Had this lady actually just cut a brick out of the wall? "Kagome - Kagome Higurashi," the princess sputtered and shook the elderly woman's hand, still dumbfounded.

Kaede wheezed and released Kagome's hand. Predictable…whenever someone recognized her for who she was they changed demeanor. It was an unspoken rule that she should not be treated as a normal person, of course. She was Princess Kagome Higurashi, the great and powerful miko, not some ordinary girl with an ordinary home and an ordinary family. Nope.

"My goodness! Princess, what has happened? How is it that you have ended up in a place such as this?" the woman asked anxiously.

Kagome paused for a moment and replied quietly, "I was kidnapped three weeks ago, and this is where they brought me." She leaned against the wall and hurriedly changed topics. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are, would you?"

"Why Princess Dear," Kaede started, "we're in the northern kingdom, in one of Lord Naraku's castles. You didn't know?" She raised an eyebrow as she peered through the small opening at Kagome.

Kagome turned her eyes to the floor and picked up her rock to make some fresh marks on the cement. She answered Kaede with a nod and floated off into her thoughts which, oddly, included a certain hanyou boy. "I wonder…" she hummed.

"What is, dear?" Kaede prodded once again.

"It's nothing…" Kagome mumbled, paying no attention to Kaede's questions.

Kaede frowned and bid the princess a quick 'good night,' wandering into bed herself and leaving Kagome to her thoughts.

**A/N** – Constructive criticism please. : )

I'm going to cry when (after all my editing) no one thinks that this is any different than the first run through… But I guess that's okay because I still don't really like it. 


	2. Unfriendly Confrontation

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^  
  
A/N - Hello again! Chapter two is up! Oh, and don't mind my uncreative chapter names; I really suck at that sort of thing. Yeah, the only reason this story has a name is because I happened to be listening to "I'm With You" by Avril Lavigne; the name just kinda...stuck. Oh, and as usual, flashbacks will be marked with ~~Flash~~. And I don't feel like writing that in the beginning of every chapter that I put flashbacks in... so don't forget! ^_^ But anyway, on to the story! ^_-  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Unfriendly Confrontation  
  
Okay, this was officially bad. His first attempt to escape by jumping straight out of his circle of guards hadn't worked so well. They'd gotten a net over his head, but he'd been able to rip that off. They'd hurled a few spears at him, and he just barely dodged all of those. Normally that'd be an easy task, but there was somewhere around seventy people thrusting those spears at him; not to mention that when they'd thrown the net over him, they had decided to shoot some arrows along with it. He'd gotten pretty scratched up, which put him in a bit of pain...the source of which probably came from that nice big gash in his back where two spears had been flung right into him.  
  
But that wasn't the worst of it; the worst part was that they had their arrows ready and aimed at his airborne figure, and their fingers would release their attack at any second.  
  
Yeah, he was in a really bad situation. He could try using Sankontetsou on them, but he didn't want to risk getting stabbed in the back with five to ten arrows at the same time he attacked. He could always try out that sword he'd 'borrowed' yesterday; Testsaiga or something. But by the looks of it that rusted old piece of crap was completely useless. Besides, he didn't have it with him.  
  
Life really sucked these days...  
  
Actually, life had sucked for the past twelve years. From when he was six years old until now, he'd been on his own. At first, he barely got by with his life; but after a while he got the hang of the whole 'borrowing' thing, and he'd gotten pretty good at it. Sometimes he got a little carried away and greedy... but besides that, he'd done fairly well for himself. Besides the few times he'd messed up, that is...  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
Alright, he was set. He'd gotten six tomatoes, fourteen radishes, ten carrots, and two heads of lettuce. That would last him a couple of days.  
  
The nine year old hanyou had a broad grin on his face as he marched out of the farmer's field; plunder in hand. He'd gotten everything he needed without a hassle! The man that owned the land he'd just finished pillaging had idiotically left it unguarded while he had left for the town. As to why the farmer had left his precious field defenseless, he didn't know.  
  
But that wasn't important! He'd gotten what he came for, so why stay and mull any longer?  
  
So he kept on marching right out of the field, grabbing any nice-looking and easy-to-reach vegetable he saw.  
  
Ah, today was his day! This was much easier than usual, and he was feeling very lucky. And look! A potato patch! He loved potatoes... But as he was making his way over to snatch a few of his favorite vegetable, he snapped his head up to the sound of the leaves crunching.  
  
The farmer was back; and he was right there, watching him.  
  
"Oh crud..." he was in big trouble now... these people considered the activity he was taking part in a very high crime.  
  
"You scoundrel! How dare you steal my crops!" the angered man shouted as he stomped in rage straight towards Inuyasha.  
  
Dang!! What should he do!? Running seemed to be the best option, but that was probably because he didn't have any others.  
  
So he sprinted as fast as his legs could carry him out of the farmer's field and into the forest, heading towards the creek on the other side. He'd be able to cross it quickly, but it would take his pursuer a little longer; that would buy him some time...  
  
He looked over his shoulder and an expression of fear and amazement crossed his face. The man was only a few feet behind him!! How in the world had he kept up?!  
  
This forced Inuyasha to try to quicken his pace as much as possible. That wasn't very much though; let alone enough to get him away from the farmer.  
  
He let a pained cry escape his lips as the rough man snatched his hair in one hand and his left forearm in the other. Crap...!! He'd caught up with him!  
  
"You little brat! You know how high a crime it is to steal in this town?!" he roared and gave his hair a rough yank. "I've seen you taking from my fields twice already and I won't have it happen again! Lesson's need to be taught to unruly hanyou monsters such as yourself!" he said and gave Inuyasha a hard slap on the face.  
  
"This'll teach you for stealing from my crops!" he shouted as he raised a fist to strike Inuyasha again-  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
Inuyasha clenched his jaw and balled his fists as he pushed the bad memories away from him. That was a long time ago anyway... it didn't matter now. What had he been thinking about before...?  
  
Oh yeah, that was it... He was about to tell himself that they didn't have any justifiable reasons for trying to kill or capture him!  
  
'What?! What are you talking about!? I can think of plenty of reasons as to why they would want to stop you.'  
  
'Oh yeah? Name three.'  
  
'Okay - Number one, you've been stealing-'  
  
'Borrowing.'  
  
'Okay, ~borrowing~ food from this town for months now; I can imagine that might upset them a little bit!'  
  
'Hey, give me a break! I can't survive if I don't eat, and-'  
  
'I'm not finished yet! How about all those swords that you sto-'  
  
'Borrowed!'  
  
'~borrowed~ from the town's sword smith?'  
  
'I just wanted to try them out-'  
  
'And then there was always the time that you st-'  
  
'Borrowed! Damnit!!'  
  
'Same difference!! But that doesn't change the fact that you took that horse without permission!'  
  
'Just leave me alone!!' he mentally shouted back with a very loud mental growl. (A/N - I couldn't help myself - I just had to write that in there somewhere... ^_^;) Stupid voice, that thing was so annoying...  
  
"Oh shit...!" he cursed as he pulled himself back to reality when his attackers fired their arrows. He'd completely gone into a daze there for a minute. And as another round of spears came flying towards him he leapt swiftly out of the way. Success!  
  
He landed on one of the nearby houses to shout his victory. "Heh! Eat that you bastards! You can't-"  
  
Inuyasha fell from his perch on the village roof to land on his side on the hard ground below. What the hell had just happened? When did they shoot and where from!? He hadn't seen any other guards aiming at him except for the ones that had already fired!  
  
He recklessly tried to pull himself up off the cold ground so he could remove those repulsive points from his back, but it was to difficult to move. Damnit!!  
  
He cringed in pain and coughed fresh blood onto the ground before him. He inwardly cursed as he saw the guards rushing towards him and removing their weapons rather painfully from his back as they pulled him up by his arms.  
  
"Put him in the wagon; Lord Naraku wants him taken straight to the prisons." A middle aged official ordered.  
  
"Yes, sir!" several younger guards answered simultaneously.  
  
"Shit...!" Inuyasha cursed "Shit!!"  
  
They'd caught him. They'd finally caught him.  
  
~~*~~  
  
Kagome yawned and stretched her arms and legs as she lazily opened her eyes. What was all the racket out there? Whoever it was was being really loud... And why was she sleeping on the floor next to the wall instead of on her bed...? Oh yeah, hadn't she been talking with that old woman? What was her name...Kan...Kad...Kaede! That was it. Maybe before she checked out what all that noise was she should apologize for dozing off...  
  
"Miss Kaede?" Kagome called through the empty space in the wall. "Miss Kaede? Are you awake?"  
  
"Yes, Lady Kagome." The older woman responded with a smile as she knelt down and looked through to her.  
  
Kagome had to refrain from sighing; she was still treating her like 'Princess Kagome Higurashi', not like just plain Kagome. Oh well...it wasn't anything new. "I'm sorry, I fell asleep while we were talking last night..."  
  
"Oh it's fine, dear." Kaede answered. "You must have been tired."  
  
Kagome nodded and returned her warm smile with a bright one of her own. She liked this old woman; she was very kind and pleasant to talk to. Maybe when she was finally found or set free, Kaede could come back with her. She'd be lovely to have around...  
  
Suddenly, her companion's head snapped to face the door and she stood briskly.  
  
"Follow me, old woman. We're moving you to a local prison; we need the space you're occupying." The older guard ordered.  
  
"But...I-"  
  
The man rolled his eyes at her "Just cooperate, miss. Orders are orders."  
  
Kagome watched as her new found friend solemnly nodded and picked up a small basket near her bed; slowly exiting the cell without a word.  
  
"Well this really bites..." Kagome seethed "I finally was having some decent human conversation and she's being transferred to a different cell..." The only other people she ever got to talk to were the guards, but when she did talk to them, she either got scolded by them, or they ignored her. Not that those assholes were worth conversing with anyway...  
  
But wait, didn't he say they needed the space she was occupying? He must have meant that there was another prisoner that they were going to put in there; at least she'd still have somebody to talk to...  
  
"May as well get back to that nap I was taking..." Actually, that nap wasn't sounding so appealing anymore; there was the most annoying little dripping sound coming from Kaede's cell... Her new habit of banging her head against the wall sounded more interesting. "That works to." she muttered with a shrug as she sat herself down in her favorite hit-my-head-against-the-wall spot.  
  
Once again, just before she begun her favorite hobby, she heard several men causing quite a lot of clatter as they paraded down the hall just outside her door.  
  
Kagome jumped from her spot and ran over to her cell entrance; waiting and listening anxiously in an attempt to decipher what they were saying and what was happening. They seemed to be heading right towards her door... she held her breath and listened.  
  
"Is it safe to get near him?" one of the nearby guards asked, a little worried.  
  
"He's fine; he fell unconscious before they gave him to us. I doubt he'll get up and slash you in his sleep." Terashi said with a laugh.  
  
"I heard he's extremely dangerous; they said he's a vicious beast!" a younger voice added oh-so-helpfully.  
  
Another young soldier ignored his comment and peered down the corridor "Is this where we're supposed to bring him?"  
  
"Yeah, I think this is the place. Cell number... what was it again, Kusaki?" Terashi asked his fellow guard.  
  
There was a short pause before Kusaki answered "Uh... they told us to bring the hanyou boy to number..." there was another brief pause and he finished "...number 144."  
  
Kagome froze; cell number 144... that was Kaede's old cell. It was right next to hers...and they were going to put that nutbar in it?! Well she certainly got all the luck...  
  
But maybe she shouldn't judge him so quickly; for all she knew, everything that they had said about him could have been complete and total lies - he could really be a wonderful, kind, handsome guy! But then again, she didn't think he'd be in so much trouble if he was that great...  
  
In the mean time, she may as well take a look at this guy; she had that convenient little wall hole after all.  
  
She trotted over to her vantage point and peeked through. Yep, they were bringing him in alright. They weren't exactly being quiet about it either...  
  
"Can't see his face..." she mumbled to herself; she didn't think that talking loud enough for the guards to hear her was the best of ideas... The prisoners weren't supposed to have any contact with each other, so if they found out that she had a means of doing that, they'd take it away from her immediately - not to mention punish her for breaking the rules.  
  
Damn... she couldn't see any of him. There were so many guards lifting him that all she could see was a few red blobs in between the mass of moving bodies that was encircling him.  
  
Okay, they were setting him on the bed; something she had a perfect view of. Yes! Luck was catching up with her! She watched intently as they laid him down on the bed and...wait a second. What were they doing...? Hey! They were moving it!!  
  
"Put it back! Put it back! Put it back!" she chanted in less than a whisper. That was so unfair! Why did the world always have to go against her? She continued repeating her chant in hopes that it might make them do something...  
  
Guess not. She gave an frustrated sigh and threw her sheet up, jumping into her bed with a grunt. They'd decided to move his bed next to the same wall that her bed was on, which happened to be the same wall that the missing brick was in; hence her not being able to see him at all. She could swear that somebody must have jinxed her...  
  
Okay, so maybe she was getting worked up over a rather trivial matter... but still! She'd been kidnapped, and that was reason enough to be upset.  
  
She should get some rest... she was tiring herself with all this thinking. Her last nap hadn't lasted long; she needed to rest.  
  
Kagome curled herself up into a ball and nestled her head into her pillow, folding her hands together in front of her knees, and drifted of to sleep...  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha awoke with a start and shot up in bed; or at least he would have if he hadn't doubled over in pain when he tried to 'shoot up'.  
  
"What the..." he grumbled as he looked up to his cell door to find that a guard was coming in cautiously, holding a tray of some sort.  
  
"Where the hell am I?!" he squawked at the nervous man, making him jump back a little.  
  
The young man visibly gulped and gave a shaky reply "Y- you're in the N-Northern Kingdom sir. In a p-prison cell in Lord Naraku's castle."  
  
Inuyasha's eyes widened as realization hit him. He'd been caught... they'd captured and imprisoned him. That's why he'd had all those wounds, and when he'd tried to sit up he'd dropped back down in pain. They'd caught him...  
  
"Shit..." well this really sucked.  
  
"Umm...s-sir." the guard said, just as precariously, as he held out the tray for Inuyasha to take.  
  
"What's this, food? I'm surprised that you people are feeding me. Thought you'd just decide to let me die of starvation and rot away in this pathetic little cell." Inuyasha responded flatly.  
  
"I-I'll just leave it right here, y-you can eat it when you're hungry." The young guard told him, leaving the tray on the floor near Inuyasha's bed and exiting the small room hurriedly; locking it after he left.  
  
Was it just him or did that guard seem to be afraid...?  
  
Oh well, not his problem. Now what had they given him for food...  
  
"Well, well, well. You guys are certainly giving me a feast!" Inuyasha spat sarcastically as he glared at the small bowl of rice, the little bowl of soup, and the tiny loaf of bread. This was all they were gonna give him for an entire day...? Geeze, he ate twice that much when he got it on his own.  
  
"Bastards..." he groused.  
  
He decided on making another attempt to sit up and get to that food; he was getting kinda hungry...  
  
Maybe if he flipped onto his side and slipped his legs over the edge...  
  
He carefully turned himself over and inched his feet over the side of the bed; silently praying he didn't reopen the wounds on his back with all this movement.  
  
Yes! Step number one accomplished! Now he had to sit up. Hmm...he needed to sit himself upright without causing his back to pain him. The question was; how? Maybe if he kept it perfectly straight it wouldn't hurt as much? It was worth a try...  
  
So he straightened his -already very stiff- spine, crossed his left arm over his chest and placed it in from of his right elbow, gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. Okay, on the count of three. One...two...thr- Alright, maybe five. One...two...three...four...fi- No wait - ten! One...two...three...fo-  
  
'You're just stalling, you know.'  
  
"I am not!" he growled back through clamped teeth. Why would he want to stall? He wasn't afraid that it would hurt or anything...  
  
'Yes you are you big liar!'  
  
"No I'm not, damnit!" he spouted in annoyance. Why couldn't that voice just leave him alone? Well, at least it had motivated him to sit up and get that food...  
  
"One, two, three!" he used his right elbow and his left had to quickly -but carefully- thrust himself up into a sitting position.  
  
He smirked in satisfaction at how well he'd overcome that little obstacle. So all he had to do was keep his back straight, huh? He wouldn't have to do it for very long either, just until his wound healed up more. It shouldn't take to much time...  
  
Alrighty then, now that he knew the trick to this back thing, he could move around a little easier. First of all, he wanted to eat that food...  
  
~~*~~  
  
Kagome slowly opened her eyes and focused them on the guard that was coming in with her daily meal. She let an audible sigh escape her throat which earned her a cold glare from the man. Why were they always like that? For some reason his glare seemed colder that usual today...  
  
He put her tray on the floor near the end of her bead and she watched as he left the cell grouchily grumbling something about noisy kids...  
  
"What crawled up his but?" she grumbled to the door after he left. Whatever it was, it had crawled up there a long time ago, he was always like that; she'd never seen that guard crack a smile. It was incomprehensible to her as to how somebody could live in such a pool of unhappiness. Or at least she thought he was unhappy. If he wasn't, he had a very odd way of expressing his happiness...  
  
And while she was on the subject of guards, whatever happened to Kusaki? He was the only guard she kind of liked... When he used to give her her meals, they were much better than the ones this other guard had been bringing her the past two and a half weeks. But even then, he'd sneak in now and again and give her some extra food. She knew he was still around...so why wasn't he in charge of supplying her food?  
  
She shrugged it off and hopped down from her bed; straightening out the sheet before she picked up her food and determined where to sit. Let's go over the options... The bed, the floor, the bed..., the floor... So she didn't have very many choices; no big deal...  
  
After pondering for about two more seconds, she decided to sit down by the little gap in the wall and see if her new neighbor was up and about yet.  
  
Ah! She heard him talking! He was definitely awake; maybe she should say hi?  
  
"Umm, hello? Are you awake?" Why had she asked him if he was awake when she already known he was?  
  
"No I'm not, damnit!"  
  
Kagome jumped back; that was a surprise. 'Hope he's only this grouchy in the morning..." Personally she thought it as rude to snap back so harshly; morning or not. She had only asked if he was awake... maybe the guards were right about him. But something told her that he'd been talking to somebody else, not her.  
  
She'd try again after she ate...  
  
~~*~~  
  
Geeze, this food could have been a whole lot better. The 'chicken soup' was probably just union broth with rocks in it, the rice was packed so hard into a ball it was safe to guess that it was a rock with some rice stuck on the outside, and the little loaf of bread was so hard it could easily have been a painted rock. Stupid rock obsessing guards...  
  
Oh well, food was food. Besides, that was all he had to eat. And maybe he had exaggerated just a little bit with the whole rock thing...  
  
The food didn't really look that bad, but there was just something about it...  
  
Now he was just being stupid. It was food; eat it!  
  
He picked up the tray -still being cautious with his back- and sat against the wall near his bed. Ready...eat!  
  
~~*~~  
  
Kagome's jaw dropped (showing all its ABC contents) as she gaped at the boy. She had never seen anyone eat so fast! That dufis was going to start choking in a minute...  
  
She kept on gaping at him as he inhaled his food; was he really that hungry!? He was acting like he hadn't eaten in days, or even a week. Maybe she should offer him some of her food...  
  
She wanted to get a good look at him first, though; or what she could see of him. She could only see a big mass of long white hair, the shoulder of a red haori, some claws on his fingers, and fangs in his mouth.  
  
Kagome quickly pushed herself away from the wall. Wait a second! As if long white hair wasn't enough, he had fangs and claws!? What the...!?  
  
Oh that's right...he was a hanyou wasn't he?  
  
She scooted back to the wall and looked at him again. Despite the clawed hands and the fangs amidst the rest of his teeth, he didn't really look hateful or evil or anything...he seemed fairly normal. She had to wonder why he hadn't really scared her; just surprised her. Just because he was half demon, didn't make him that different, did it?  
  
She gasped and stared at him. She'd just noticed another thing; he had dog ears! How cute!!  
  
Her hands flew to her mouth to prevent herself from squealing. That was so adorable! She had to touch those... just to make sure they were real, of course.  
  
But first things first; he'd almost finished his food and he still looked like he was starving to her. She could afford to give him some of her food. Except this time, she was going to be bold. Not shy or timid, bold. Okay...  
  
"Hello!" she greeted cheerfully; hoping she didn't startle him too much.  
  
She tried to keep the cheerful expression plastered to her face as she watched him cough up a chunk of his rice ball and continue his little choking spree. Crap...she hadn't meant for that to happen.  
  
"What the fuck...?!" he shouted; very surprised.  
  
Kagome quickly shushed him "Be quiet! The guards will hear us!" he really didn't need to freak out...  
  
"Where the shit are you?!" he said, a bit quieter this time.  
  
"Down here! To your left!" she replied, sliding her arm through the brick and waving. Well, she'd established one fact about him; he had a habit of swearing  
  
The boy jumped into a squatting position and started at her through the wall window. "Whole in the hells are you?"  
  
Kagome blinked at him, a little surprised by his rudeness and his speedy question. "K-Kagome" she stuttered out after a long pause. Okay, why wasn't he responding? Did he expect her to keep talking or something...?  
  
"Well you sure talk a lot." He scoffed as he raised his eyebrow at her after another pause. "How'd you get the brick out of the wall?"  
  
"I-I didn't do it, Kaede did." She answered, oblivious to the fact that he had no idea who Kaede was.  
  
He rolled his eyes at her and spoke back sarcastically. "Oh, you're very descriptive too. How do you expect me to know who this 'Kaede' is?"  
  
His sarcasm broke her out of her trance. This guy wasn't vicious or evil; just really cynical and rude. She turned a mild glare on him and spouted back. "You're being really rude you know, -"  
  
She just realized something. She didn't know his name yet.  
  
"Oh really?" he said flatly "Didn't notice."  
  
Man this guy was starting to tick her off. She'd just have to ignore all his vulgar comments... "What's your name?"  
  
He finally decided to return her previous glare, not as mild though. He started to stand up as he answered her, "Doesn't matter."  
  
"But I want to know." She pressed.  
  
"Sorry, no can do." He replied somewhat breezily.  
  
"I still want to know what it is." Why was he being so stubborn about giving her his name?  
  
"It's none of your business girl, bug off." He said with what appeared to be a little bit of annoyance.  
  
Did he really have to be so difficult? "Name first. Then maybe I'll leave you alone."  
  
"No"  
  
"Yes"  
  
"No"  
  
"Yes"  
  
She heard him growl in frustration and bark back at her "It's Inuyasha; now leave me alone before I decide to shove what's left of my rice ball down your throat!"  
  
Rice ball! She hadn't asked him if he wanted some of her food...she'd changed her mind about that though. This Inuyasha guy was kind of a jerk.  
  
Anyway, he'd told her to bug off, so she'd better leave him alone before she upset him even more. Back to banging her head against the wall...  
  
A/N - What did you think? I'd like to know if you thought that they acted the same as in the anime. Ya know, said things they would say, did things they would do. But for anyone who reads this that doesn't want to review, I don't mind. ^_^ You don't have to if you don't want to. I know the feeling, I go on all these random lazy moods and don't review fan fics. ^.^ Heh heh. Oh, a message for anyone that does review. Thank you so much! I really like hearing anyone's opinion on what I've written. It's very encouraging. ^_^ Well that's all, folks! Ja ne!  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	3. Make an Effort

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^  
  
A/N - (Pre-note: Anyone who doesn't want to read my very very very very VERY long, annoying rantings can just skip out on the author note today. Actually, I recommend that you do skip the author note. It's ridiculously long... ^ ^;; Anyway...) No!! I am so gonna cry! I can't read my reviews! (Well actually I can read the first two, the ones from "ME" ^_^) Bah... How upsetting is that? (Geeze, now I feel really...selfish...and spoiled... ^ ^;;) I checked my email and it said three of you guys reviewed! ^.^ I practically jumped out of my shoes! Three people!! I totally died. ^ ^ (I think I get excited a little quicker than your average girl...) But then when I tried to view the reviews, it wouldn't let me. I tried like fifty different ways, but it still didn't work. I even logged out, reset the computer, and then tried again. And guess what ended up happening anyway? The stupid thing wouldn't let me see my precious little reviews. . But still, now I feel really horrid for being so pathetically lazy and not updating sooner... I was planning on updating on Saturday, but after writing for like two minutes my brother forced me off the computer because he had to do homework. I was planning on writing up in my bedroom on some random piece of paper, but when I'd finally collected my paper and pencils and gone upstairs, upon opening my bedroom door I discovered that my sister was in there watching 'Kim Possible'. That show drives me nuts... (N-No offence to any Kim Possible fans out there! ^ ^;) And, of course, since we share a room, I couldn't kick her out. So I scooted my way to the basement (a favorite location of mine) and planned on lounging on the couch as I wrote. Only to find that my dad was down there blasting the oldies station and painting a bookshelf. I had two choices; either stay in the basement and try to write while risking being intoxicated with the horrid odor of spray paint and getting my ears blasted off while listening to 'Great balls of fire!', or playing Final Fantasy 9. What do you think I chose? Yeah... And then a friend of mine called and I had to go over to her house to practice a couple of duets that we had to play at her piano festival on Sunday. I ended up spending the night at her house, going to church Sunday morning, then going to the piano festival, then going to her house and staying there 'til 8:00, then finally getting home at 8:30, then dawdling around for a half hour, then finally going to bed. The on Monday I... umm... I uhh... Okay, Monday doesn't have an excuse. ^ ^; But that doesn't matter! Right? Anyway, I really need to stop talking now... all you people probably loathe my existence for writing such an incredibly long author's note. ^ ^;;; I think I set a record... Oops... But anyway, you can go read the chapter now. ^ ^;;;; (gosh, I took up more than half a page...)  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Make an Effort  
  
Inuyasha was dead bored. There was nothing to do in there! What in the world did the other prisoners do all day?  
  
Ugh...He plopped down on his bed and tried to think of something - anything to do.  
  
He'd exhausted himself of any and every thing that there was to do in this cramped little cell, and he was getting really fed up. Not to mention he was getting hungry...  
  
He could always go see what that girl was doing...?  
  
Well, that was something to be reconsidered... From what he'd seen of her, she was an annoying, stupid little girl, and actually- now that he thought of it, associating with her should have been one of the last things on this 'to do' list.  
  
No. He was not going to resort to such drastic measures. He could just go and... and umm... Come now, there must have been something that he hadn't done yet.  
  
Annoy the hell out of the guards? Naw, he'd used up a couple of hours on that already. Take his anger out on the walls? Nope, that got rather boring -not to mention a little tiring- after a while. Ponder a way to escape, perhaps? No, that was fruitless. He'd used up more time than necessary on that. Scribble on the walls with that stone again? Definitely not, that was another thing that he had used up way to many hours on.  
  
He could always just sit and think...right? But...what about?  
  
"....." (And the silence stretched...)  
  
Or maybe not...  
  
He gave up on that as he made a careful attempt to bend his back; he wanted to see if it was good to go yet.  
  
"Yes!" he cried in a half-hushed voice. He could finally move without fear of splitting himself in half!  
  
...Now what?  
  
He laid down on his bed in a position that had his spine in kind of a twist. Being able to turn like that was nice...  
  
A heavy sigh escaped him as he held his hand in front of his face, inspecting his claws. There wasn't anything left to do besides sleep; yet another activity that he'd spent much more time then needed on. Well...that, and looking into the next room to see what the girl in there was doing... (A/N - FYI, he is not thinking anything perverted with that statement. This is Inuyasha, not Miroku. ^ ^) He was getting rather desperate...  
  
Maybe he could just peek through that little hole in the wall for a second...? Just to see if she was doing anything worth copying. It wasn't like he had any better activities up his sleeve. With the exception of the few actions mentioned earlier, he'd been sitting around for about half the day just staring at the wall. Strange as it may be, that hadn't been something he'd found very interesting. He was nearly convinced that he'd die of boredom in a few hours. Besides, he might figure out something to do by watching her...  
  
So he crept over to the wall window and peered in; his gaze flicking around what he could see of the small cell in search of his neighbor. Even though he couldn't see her, he still knew that she was in there; he could smell her. But what was that other scent mixed in with hers...?  
  
Inuyasha's eyes widened. That other scent...  
  
She was...crying?  
  
It was a very faint scent; she wasn't crying a lot, just a little bit. He hadn't heard her sobbing either, but his ears had picked up on her shaky breathing. For some reason he thought she was trying to hold it in. He really hated it when women cried...  
  
Despite the fact that he didn't really consider her a woman...  
  
Okay, he hated it when any female in general cried. Yeah, that sounded more appropriate...  
  
He let out a barely audible sigh and placed his elbows on his knees, resting his chin on the palms of his hands. Great, now he felt a pinch of guilt for saying (or thinking, rather) that she was stupid and annoying, and for being rude to her earlier. Damn girl...  
  
Wait, why did he feel guilty? She had been just as rude as he had! Well, maybe not... But he doubted that she was crying because of him anyway. "She's probably just upset that she's in prison." he tutted.  
  
Speaking of, why was a girl like her in here anyway? He hadn't thought about it until now...  
  
She didn't look like a thief, living on her own; her clothes -tattered or not- gave that away. Maybe she was a royal servant, or even a noblewoman? It was quite possible, because despite how soiled it was, she had on a really really nice, dress. Who knows how much gold someone would have to trade for a dress like the one she was wearing. It looked like... like an autumn evening. The patterns and colors fit right in with the season; the faded greens and reds blended perfectly with the bright yellows and oranges. Chances were, she was a very rich noblewoman.  
  
Noblegirl, more like...  
  
But if she was, then what had she done to get herself in here?  
  
If she was a servant, it was possible that she had stolen from or disobeyed whoever her master or mistress was. That wouldn't really give a good explanation for the dress though... But what if she was a noble?  
  
Another question popped into his mind; how long had she been in that cell? It could have ranged from days, to weeks, to months even. It was hard to determine...  
  
"Keh!" he scoffed at himself. "...wasting too much time on that dumb girl..." he grumbled and stood up; wandering around the room and pondering which wall he should use his claws on. At least he'd thought of something to do. Not that he hadn't done that five or six times already, but hey, may as well do it again. He was still gonna keep an ear focused on that crying girl though...  
  
~~*~~  
  
Kagome snapped her head up from its place behind her huddled arms, straitening her bent knees. She'd just heard him talk; he'd said something about a 'dumb girl'. That jerk, he better not have been talking about her. She growled at the air in front of her and shot it a glare; pretending it was Inuyasha.  
  
But wait a minute! If he was there that could've meant that he'd...  
  
She took a thin intake of breath and her fingers flew to her lips as she sat there in anxiousness. That couldn't have happened...! He just couldn't have heard her!  
  
No, he didn't. She had been careful not to make any noise at all. There was no way he could have heard...  
  
She brought her knees up to her chin again, wrapping her arms around them protectively as in her previous position. Every time she shed tears she felt like a pathetic little crybaby; not emotionally strong enough to even resist the urge to cry. It made her feel so weak and helpless. She didn't want to feel that way...  
  
There was only one other time she'd felt worse; when he had left her.  
  
She squeezed her eyes shut and forced the memory out of her head. She remembered too much...  
  
Kagome let out a labored sigh and contemplated what to do with her current situation. She was bored, as usual, but now she had a neighbor that she could talk with. The question was; should she try and talk with him and risk becoming mortal enemies with that ass, or just leave him alone and miss out on a new friend?  
  
She laughed a little at the latter option. As if he'd befriend her. He didn't seem like a very easy-to-get-along-with person. And from what she'd seen of his attitude, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of getting to know him either. She had just asked for his name, and he got all upset. It really shouldn't have taken so long just to get his name out of him. Stubborn idiot...  
  
But then again, he might not really be a total jerk. First impressions aren't always the best ones. She shouldn't give up on him so easily... He was probably just having a bit of a bad day. Really though, she couldn't blame him for that. He had been brought in unconscious from blood loss or something, and he really had some severe wounds on that body of his; emphasis on the fact that he'd been brought in. She had been upset when she was caught, and she still was. He had a right to that as well. In reality, he could be a nice, normal guy! A normal guy with a bit of an attitude, more like...but none the less, normal.  
  
Though she really didn't know the true meaning of the commonly used word, 'normal'. She didn't really know too much about 'normal' people in general... She was penned up in the castle all day and night. There had only been a few times when she'd gone beyond the borders of the castle courtyards; and those times it was just to visit one of the towns or villages with her mother and her brother. Mom had never let her take Buyo with them...  
  
That was probably why being brought to an entirely strange place by complete strangers had scared the life out of her.  
  
She sighed push away all the somewhat tragic thoughts as she tried to snatch up all the pleasant memories and shove them into the 'Kagome's current thoughts' section of her brain. Those were things she liked thinking about. Beautiful memories that now seemed so, so very... distant. It felt like and eternity ago that she was out in the courtyards playing around with Souta...  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
"Kagome! Did you find him yet?" five year old Souta shouted to his eleven year old sister as he adverted his gaze to the bushes several meters away.  
  
"Nope! No sign of that little hippopotamus anywhere..." she answered, trying not to squash the tulips as she pushed her way through the bushes she'd been searching in, breathing in a breath of fresh air. It had surprised her that they had stayed around for so long, last year they'd turned into fertilizer a lot sooner... The gardens always smelled lovely though, and she was glad her mom had ordered them planted. It was kind of a substitute for not being able to wander the gorgeous wildflower fields near the villages.  
  
"Darn..." Souta huffed as he reached into a patch of ferns, spreading them apart as his eyes scanned the area for his target. Now where had he gone...?  
  
"Ah ha!" Kagome chirped as she scooped up the certain someone they had been searching for. "Found him, Souta!"  
  
"You did?" he chortled gleefully as he bounced over to his sister. "Yes! Where'd you find him, sis?"  
  
"He was sitting in the rose patch..." she replied thoughtfully as she ruffled her little brother's hair with her free hand. Sometimes she wondered about that cat. He'd been acting like a masochist lately...  
  
Don't ask.  
  
"Buyo!" Souta took the cat from his sister's arms. Kagome... what had he wanted to ask her...? "We finally found ya, Buyo! What in the world have you been doing lately?" he scolded as he poked the cat's nose.  
  
Was that a figment of her imagination, or had she just heard the cat sigh...?  
  
"Uhh, Souta?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Why were we looking for the cat in the first place?"  
  
"Oh yeah!" he said as if just remembering "Cm'ere, I wanna show you something..." he trailed as he pranced of into a more 'open' section of the courtyard.  
  
Kagome trotted after her brother and watched him as he told her where he wanted her to stand, and she listened to him, curious as to what he wanted to show her.  
  
Souta walked about a meter away from her and held Buyo on either sides of the cat, in quite an awkward position. "Okay, now all you have to do is catch Buyo." Souta instructed.  
  
His sister raised an eyebrow at him "What do you mean, 'catch Buyo'?"  
  
He gave a childish roll of his eyes and furthered his instructions. "I mean that I'm gonna throw Buyo up in the air and you have to catch him!"  
  
"You're going to what?!" Kagome squeaked. Had her little brother gone insane?  
  
"Just catch him! It's really fun!"  
  
"For who!?"  
  
"Us of course!" he blinked as if it was blatantly obvious.  
  
Kagome furrowed her brow and curled her lip. Did he give a care about the cat...?  
  
"Oh, come on." He prodded "It'll be fun! Buyo's fine - tossing him around a little won't bother him."  
  
Apparently not...  
  
But hey, why not give it a try? Just this once...  
  
"Well, okay..." she conceded as she positioned herself to play 'catch the cat'.  
  
"On the count of three" Souta began, acknowledging the nod from his sibling. "One...two...three!"  
  
Kagome watched as the plump little cat flew into the air with a horrified look on its face. A little to the left... okay, here he came.  
  
She held her arms out and closed her eyes as the cat came falling from the sky, its shadow laying on her arms.  
  
"...Umm..." Kagome slowly opened an eye, shouldn't she have caught him by now...?  
  
She looked around to find that the cat was no where in sight. "What on earth...?" her gaze adverted to her brother, she wanted to see his reaction to this odd situation.  
  
"K-Kagome...!" Souta stuttered, staring up wide eyed.  
  
Out of curiosity, once again, she followed his gaze up to an extending limb from the nearby oak tree. Her jaw dropped in surprise.  
  
Just then, both of them broke out into simultaneous fits of laughter.  
  
"Souta!" she managed in between laughs "You threw- him into the- into the tree!!"  
  
He just laughed all the harder.  
  
"Look!" he pointed at Buyo in between cackles, which were slowly receding into giggles "He's stuck- in between the- the branches!"  
  
More laughter.  
  
Their giggles slowly died down and the locked gazes with their bright eyes as two big grins tilted on their lips; their gaze slowly tilting its way back to the tree-bound cat.  
  
...And yet another round of laughter abounded.  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
Kagome smiled as she caught up with her memories. She kind of felt like a drama-queen-wanna-be, but that didn't matter. She and Souta had had so much fun when they were little. It had kind of died down as the both of them got older...but they still had their moments. They had tortured that poor cat too many times to count...hence the immense amount of pity she had for Buyo. They'd thrown him back and forth for hours every week. Why hadn't they gotten bored of that...? She chuckled to herself. They had been such sadists...  
  
A loud scraping noise brought her out of her thoughts; it was coming from Inuyasha's cell. What was he doing in there?  
  
She stood up off her bed and kneeled down in front of the space in the wall. Her eyes widened in surprise at what she saw; he was leaving rather large scratches on the wall where he swung his claws. That guy was pretty strong...  
  
He wasn't really making a dent in it or anything, just leaving lots of marks. But he still looked strong...  
  
Kagome's jaw dropped; his previous action didn't seem like much compared to what he'd just done. Wow! He was so strong!! "Amazing..." she whispered as she stared in awe at the boy. That was really cool! And what had he said when he swung his arm? Sankon...Sankontetsou?  
  
~~*~~  
  
He'd trained his hearing on her cell, waiting for her to stop crying. He had kept it there even when she'd stopped, just incase she started again. He detested when girls cried...  
  
Inuyasha didn't move his attention from her; even during the long pause that stretched out wearily. She wasn't crying anymore...so what was she doing? He listened intently for any kind of sound, but he didn't hear anything.  
  
Wait! What was that noise...? Had she just...growled? What the...  
  
Oh! Another sound! She had taken a rather sharp intake of breath...then she sighed, and...what was that...? A...laugh? It sounded more like a scoff to him...  
  
A second sigh and a long pause... he didn't hear anything for a while. Then what... a chuckle? Wow - this girl could change moods quickly...  
  
He let out a sigh of his own, and gave the wall a slash with his claws, just for good measure.  
  
He focused a tad more attention on her when he'd heard her get up at the sound of his claws. She walked a few steps, and then stopped. His sixth sense told him that he was being watched, and by none other than the girl in then next cell.  
  
Well! Despite how very little he liked this girl, why not take advantage of the situation? There wasn't anything wrong with showing off a little, was there? She'd be so damn surprised; it'd be amusing to see the expression on her face.  
  
So he gave the wall several more nice long slashes, and decided to really give her a 'wow'.  
  
"Sankontetsou!" Multiple thick yellow streaks flew from his claws and smashed into the wall, leaving a jolly good amount of dents in it.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, he'd just barely noticed that her jaw had moved - dropped, rather. It was kind of a vague assumption based on what he saw, but considering the context of the situation, it was a fair guess. Then he was positive that he'd heard her whisper the word 'amazing', which could have applied to none other than him.  
  
A smug grin lingered on Inuyasha's lips as the girl gawked at him. He'd gotten his intended reaction. Any naïve little girl like her would think of his abilities as 'amazing'. Now it was time to have a little bit of fun...  
  
"You're catching flies, you know." He taunted as he slanted her a look over his shoulder.  
  
She stared at him for a moment then snapped her jaw shut; quickly knitting her brow together and giving him another mild looking glare.  
  
He inwardly gave another contented sigh. And yet again he'd captured his intended reaction. "What? Don't plan on catching any of the local flies today? Too bad..." he gave a click of his tongue and turned on his heel towards her.  
  
"Okay, Kagome" she thought "Just ignore his comments. You can be a decent human being - even if he would rather be an asshole."  
  
He frowned when she didn't snap back at him; instead, her expression loosened a bit, and she visibly made an effort to slide a smile onto her face.  
  
"Where'd you learn to do that?" she tried, making an attempt to be as cheerful as possible.  
  
He furrowed his brow and returned her glare once again, just quite a bit stronger. Hadn't she heard him? She was supposed to get all upset. "Why do you want to know?" he questioned her.  
  
"Just curious." She replied with a limp shrug.  
  
"Why?"  
  
She shrugged again and gave him a half sincere smile "I told you; I'm just curious."  
  
"Just nosey? Or just curious?" he shot back.  
  
She tilted her head slightly and answered him as kindly and softly as she could manage. "Sorry... I was just wondering. It was really cool and all, and I-"  
  
She stopped speaking and stared at him blankly. He had rushed right up to her face and narrowed his eyes at her. Was it something she said...? She was kind of glad that wall was there...  
  
He didn't speak or anything, just stared. What had she done to upset him so much? She was just about to ask when he stood up again and turned his heel on her.  
  
Well, just because he didn't want to talk to her didn't mean she wasn't gonna talk to him. She was bored, and he hadn't snapped at her the last time...so maybe being kind to him had helped?  
  
"W-Wait!" Kagome stuttered. She wasn't scared or nervous or anything, she just didn't have anything to say to him...  
  
He took a step back and gave her another one of his 'over the shoulder' glances. "What?" he sounded irritated...  
  
Damnit...What to say... What to say... "Umm... I didn't umm... upset you or anything, did I?" Geeze she sounded stupid... what kind of a question was that? Of course he was a little upset with her.  
  
He answered her with a simple 'keh' and turned his head to face forward. He had just started to walk away again...  
  
"I...I..." "Stop stuttering!!" "Inuyasha, I'm sorry if I did!" she all but shouted back to him in desperation. She didn't want another conversation with this guy to end the same way; even if she had to shove her pride out the window. She was dying for human conversation, and he was really the only way to get it.  
  
He stopped. Why? Why was this girl sorry? She sounded a little strained when she'd said that, but she'd still apologized for something that really wasn't her fault. Why had she apologized to him? And the question that was nagging him the most was... why wasn't she rejecting him? Why wasn't this stupid girl acting just like everyone else and either fearing him or hating him?  
  
And she'd called him... by his name. No one did that... only two people he'd really gotten know had called him by his name. And she'd been so kind when she answered him; not screeching at him like she should have. It was bothering the heck out of him...and he didn't want to hear her anymore. She didn't know what she was talking about... stupid idiot... He wanted this naïve little girl to just go away, so he wouldn't have to listen to her again.  
  
"Just shut up."  
  
Kagome just stared at his still form. What...? "But-"  
  
"Just stop talking to me, okay?!" he snapped at her furiously. He really wanted her to leave him be.  
  
Maybe... she should wait a day or two before she tried to talk with him...?  
  
Yeah, at least that much.  
  
A/N - Woo hoo! Chapter three is finished! And please excuse any spelling or grammar errors of mine... I don't always see my own mistakes. And I'd also like to mention that I fixed up the last section of chapter 2. I didn't like how it was... it just didn't work. So I fixed it. ^-^ Oh, don't forget to give me your opinion -good or bad- on the story. (If you're up to it... ^ ^;;) And I apologize again for the long wait. ^ ^; I didn't mean to take so long...  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	4. Questions of Life

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^ A/N - I didn't take too long to update this time, did it? ^_^ Okay, I have a message for all you peoples. ^-^ Alright, here's the thing. I have nothing against Fanfiction.net, but umm... well, you see, it kind of changes things in my story. Like, it chops of parts of my author notes and every time that I try to write three periods in a row, it deletes two of them. So...it doesn't exactly portray the story the way I want it to... (PLEASE don't go and sue me or anything!! ^ ^;;; I don't mean any harm...) so if you could start reading it at mediaminer.org, (I'm not sure if this will work, but you could try clicking here, AFTER you finish reading the author note! ^_^ : MediaMiner - Fan Fic: With You) I'd be very pleased. ^_^ but there's just one little hitch with mediaminer... I won't make you log in to review or anything... but lately, It hasn't been letting me read my reviews, so I know you review, I just cant see it. So...you might have to copy it to an email and send it here: Katiesiefert@wi.rr.com. Or, you can read it on Mediaminer, but review on Fanficion.net. either way works... But yea... I'd appreciate it if you used mediaminer to read it... ^ ^;; Oh yea! And thanks so much to: kogoshii hi, Evil-Miyu, Dark Depression, and Lavender Valentine for reviewing. You guys are so encouraging. Oh, and I know I just gave the world my email address. ^ ^;; I don't really care though... it's not like I don't get loads of spam already. ¬_¬ But aNyWaY! On to the story! ^_^  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Questions of Life  
  
Kagome sighed as she sat on her bed, staring at the wall yet again. She had been captured three and a half weeks ago, and it had seemed easier to go without a decent conversation when there weren't any people to have a decent conversation with. She had one right at her fingertips, but he was just out of her reach. That guy really didn't have any intentions of talking with her...  
  
She hadn't spoken a word to him all day yesterday, and not a word to him so far today. He had done the same.  
  
Ah, here came the jailers with her daily meal... they were a little bit earlier today. But if they were bringing her her meal that would mean that they were bringing him his too... maybe he'd be in a perkier mood after he ate, and she could try to talk to him again? It was worth a try...  
  
The guard came in and left her food tray on the floor near the end of her bed, per usual, and left swiftly; closing and locking the door behind him. It had disappointed her that the guard had never once forgotten to lock her door...  
  
She picked up her tray of food and sat down near the previously brick-occupied space in the wall. May as well see how Inuyasha was doing...  
  
The guard walked in his room next, leaving his tray near the door instead of by his bed. Oddly enough, the guard seemed to be afraid of him...  
  
The man left the room, shut and locked the door, and went on his way to feed the other prisoners.  
  
Inuyasha grumbled and she saw him walk, arms folded, to the other side of the room. He reached down a picked up his tray one handedly, letting the other hang lazily at his side as he walked towards his bed.  
  
Or wait, no he wasn't...was he aiming for the wall hole...?!  
  
She slipped into a very monotone panic. (A/N - Did that sentence make any sense at all...?) Should she stay there and let him see her, or squirm away to where he couldn't? Would he get mad again if he knew that she had been watching him? It was a little bit of a risk to stay... if he got mad at her, she'd have to wait even longer to try and talk to him again.  
  
He was such an ass...  
  
Too bad that ass was the only being around to talk to...  
  
The option of sneaking away was dissolved as he came over and sat down, as he had the first day, next to the little window that connected their cells.  
  
Wait... had he even noticed that she was there? Wow, he must really never have woken up.  
  
She stared at him as he started to eat. He was actually really good looking... she could only see half his face and she thought he had better looks than any other person she'd seen before. Quite the handsome lad...  
  
And his hair... she wondered about that. Why in the world would a guy have such long, white hair?  
  
His claws and fangs too; those were hard to get over. He was so strong! She still wanted to know how he learned that 'Sankontetsou' trick...  
  
There was always her favorite aspect of him to ponder...his ears. Those were so cute! She swore she would touch them someday.  
  
Kagome kept on watching him as he ate, slowly - almost as if he was savoring every bite. That made him appear even more like a starving boy...  
  
Once again she found herself tempted to give him some of her food. She really didn't eat a whole lot... and what they gave her was a little more than enough to suffice her energy needs. (Which weren't very high.)  
  
She could afford to give him some food, right? And this time, she'd cut to the point, but she'd still try to talk... kindly. As softly as she could manage.  
  
It wasn't like she was only giving her food to that jerk because he looked like he was famished - that may have been her main motive, but she still had one or two others. Also because he might... well, be a little nicer. Warm up a bit. Not to mention the fact that she wanted him to help her out of there...  
  
But just before she started to speak...  
  
"Staring is rude, you know." He pointed out with a sideways glance at her. Dang... he'd know she was there the whole time, hadn't he? And there was that half bitter tone again...  
  
"Um...I'm sorry...I..." she fumbled over her words as she tried to recapture any scattered brain cells. "I didn't mean to stare or anything..."  
  
"...Stop that!" he hissed suddenly as he snapped a glare on her. Kagome was taken aback; where had that come from...?  
  
"Stop what?" she blinked.  
  
"Stop trying to act nice! You're just faking it!" he growled.  
  
"What?!" She gaped at him and screeched back in a half hushed voice. "Inuyasha!! I was really trying to be nice to you - you big jerk! I'm not the one who's being an ass here!! I'll have you know that I was about to offer you my own food!"  
  
"Quit being so-!" he stopped, not finishing his fore planned statement. What had she just said?  
  
"You are so rude! How can you be-"  
  
"Wait! What did you-"  
  
"I'm not finished! You really need to st-"  
  
"But what-"  
  
"Don't interrupt! I was saying that-"  
  
"Listen to me for a second!" he all but shouted in desperation as he shot his hand through the wall, clamping it over her mouth.  
  
She sat there still as a board and stared at him; what happened to that guy? He didn't sound as angry as he had a minute ago...  
  
Then she realized another thing. "I blew up at him, didn't I?! I didn't want to... but that idiot just had to light the fuse!"  
  
He just sat there and stared at her for a while, while she stared right back. She was confused...and what was that look on his face? He looked like he was a little perplexed himself... but he looked a bit angry too. There was another emotion in there...she couldn't figure out what it was.  
  
Inuyasha slowly released his grip on her, slipping his arm back through the wall. "...Why?"  
  
His voice sounded...half strained. And she could still sense all those different emotions in his voice; confusion, anger...and...what was the other one...? Desperation...or loneliness maybe? He sounded sort of sad... but anger still seemed to be the most prominent emotion.  
  
"W-Why...what?" did she really have to stutter? There was nothing to stutter about...  
  
He frowned at her "Why would you want to give your food to me?"  
  
Uh... "Well...you looked like you were starving or something...so I thought I'd give you some of my food. I figured I could last without a meal, or at least part of one..." Okay, so she'd probably get really hungry... but she could easily survive 'til the next day.  
  
He was still looking at her. Was she supposed to go on...?  
  
Probably. "And... I figured that maybe you could, you know...help me out of here. Both of us could escape if I made a distraction and you got us past the guards..." she didn't really want to add the part about him being nicer...  
  
He narrowed his eyes at her slightly. "You're bluffing."  
  
She shot him a quick frown "I'm telling the truth."  
  
"Liar."  
  
"I am not...!" she ground out through gritted teeth. She was getting a little upset with him again...  
  
"Yes, you are."  
  
"No, I'm not!"  
  
"Yes, you are!"  
  
"No, I'm-!"  
  
"I know you're lying! No one would give me food! It just wouldn't happen!" he interrupted rather fiercely. He'd used his favorite bitter tone again...  
  
But why had he put so much emphasis on the word 'me'?  
  
"Why?" she threw his earlier question right back.  
  
"Why what?!"  
  
"Why...wouldn't someone want to help you?" she asked him quietly.  
  
Inuyasha growled in frustration. "Don't you understand anything, girl?! I'm a Hanyou! H-a-n-y-o-u!" he spelled it out for her "Doesn't that mean something to you? I'm only half human and half demon! I'm different!"  
  
She clenched her jaw and shouted back "That doesn't matter, you idiot! You shouldn't-"  
  
Kagome froze; that noise outside...the guards were coming.  
  
They'd heard them.  
  
"I-Inuyasha...! T-The guards heard us!!" she stammered to him anxiously as she switched her gaze to the door.  
  
They'd heard them, so what? It didn't matter, did it? "What's so bad about that?" he asked calmly; having already forgotten completely that they had been arguing a couple of seconds ago.  
  
So simple minded...  
  
She flicked her eyes back to his. "What to you mean 'what's so bad about that'?! They've given strict orders not to associate with other prisoners not to raise your voices!" she screeched. "Haven't you heard about how severely they punish people here?!"  
  
"Well if we're not supposed to raise our voices, you should probably stop yelling!" he scolded back in a low voice.  
  
"I'm not yelling!!" she yelled back, slapping a hand over her mouth after she realized what she did.  
  
Inuyasha was just a little bit worried now. What exactly had she meat when she'd spoken about 'how severely they punish people here'? She'd looked pretty freaked out... They couldn't do anything too drastic for such a trivial crime, right?  
  
Kagome flung her sights to the cell door as she heard keys dangling. "I-Inuyasha...! They're c-coming in!"  
  
"Well..." he racked his brain for something to say. "Go sit on your bed and act like nothing happened you stupid girl!"  
  
Kagome didn't really have any other choices... So she stood up and all but jumped onto her bed, facing the wall across the room and pretending like everything was normal.  
  
Her door creaked open as four officers stepped in and stood in front of her. Oh gosh... what did that one have in his hand?  
  
"Miss Kagome, is it?" the oldest man said. She shivered; what was with his attitude? He kind of held his head in such a way, so that when he looked at her, it was more like he was looking down at her then looking at her. And that awful patronizing tone in his voice... it was worse than that bitter tone Inuyasha liked to use.  
  
Kagome nodded her head meekly; she was glad he hadn't said 'princess Kagome' or 'Kagome Higurashi'. If they had, Inuyasha would know who she really was...  
  
"I'll have you know, young lady, we could hear you shouting from the other end of this corridor." Wait... they'd only heard her? So that meant that Inuyasha wouldn't get punished... at least one of them got off.  
  
"Funny, it sounded like you were shouting to someone." Crap... so they had heard Inuyasha?  
  
She swallowed hard; should she cover for him? She could tell them that she'd just been upset and had been shouting at nobody in particular...but they might already know that she'd been talking to him, and they were just testing her now. That could worsen her punishment...  
  
Or...she could tell them she'd been talking to Inuyasha and be free of any extra punishment she might receive, but then he'd get in trouble as well.  
  
She made her decision, took a deep breath, and gave them her answer.  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha listened as the four guards walked in and shut the door behind them. He could see them stroll in front of the girl's bed, but he still couldn't see her.  
  
He looked the officers over carefully, noting the short whip one of the younger ones held in his right hand.  
  
Shit...she was really in trouble...  
  
But why the hell would they have such damn severe punishments for such a small thing? That was cruel...  
  
"Miss Kagome, is it?" he heard the older man ask. Despite his stuck up attitude, he seemed to be making the tiniest most miniscule of efforts to show her a bit of respect. It seemed like he was doing it because he had to... but why would he do that anyway...? She was just a stupid little girl... she couldn't have been that high up in society.  
  
He didn't see her response, but apparently, she had nodded or something...  
  
"I'll have you know, young lady, we could hear you shouting from the other end of this corridor." The guard continued with a somewhat patronizing tone layered over his voice.  
  
But wait... he had only mentioned her. He hadn't said anything about hearing him say anything. So did that mean he was off the hook...?!  
  
"Funny... it sounded like you were shouting to someone." Damnit...had they heard him too?  
  
There was a long pause, and he didn't hear her respond. He could feel how nervous she was...What would she say? Would she tell them that she had been talking to him, or would she cover for him?  
  
Crap...now he wished that he'd been a little nicer to her earlier; at least then his chances of her covering for him would have been raised a little... he could guarantee that she'd turn him in from the way he had treated her.  
  
He snapped his attention back on the girl; she was answering them. "I..." she started, letting another pause stretch through the air. She really knew how to build the tension didn't she?  
  
"I...wasn't talking to anyone; you must be mistaken, sir." she said with a forced calmness. Inuyasha stared wide eyed at the wall in front of him; that was a shock. Why... why had she covered for him? Now she'd have to take all the punishment. Why would she do something like that?  
  
Then it hit him; she was taking all the punishment. It hadn't really occurred to him until now...but, they'd probably beat her. He'd heard that Naraku was a vicious king, and his men not much different. After all, he and his two... what were they anyway? Detachments or something... anyway, he and the two of them, Kanna and Kagura, ruled over two kingdoms; the north and the east.  
  
He couldn't just sit here and watch a girl get hurt... but what could he do?  
  
He snapped back into reality at the slash of a whip and the piercing sound of a girls scream. Shit...!! They were beating her already?!  
  
"Don't lie to us girl!" the older one snapped as another of the younger ones grabbed the front of her dress and yanked her to the floor, ripping the beautiful material in the process.  
  
"I-I'm not! I swear-!" he heard her cry at the second strike of the whip. Damnit those bastards!!! He couldn't take this a second longer!!  
  
Inuyasha stood back from the wall and mustered up all his strength, clenching his fists as he heard her cry out again. It didn't matter that he didn't like her a whole lot, that didn't change the facts. He was going to stop this, and those guys were going to pay for hurting an innocent girl like her.  
  
When he'd done this to awe strike that girl earlier, he'd used very little force so that he didn't reopen that back wound of his. But he was gonna risk it now... "Sankontetsou!!" he shouted as he aimed the blunt of his attack for the weak spot in the wall.  
  
~~*~~  
  
Kagome cried out in pain as she flew backwards from the blow to her ribs. "Please stop...! I-"  
  
"Sankontetsou!!" She sat there in bewilderment as she watched as about forty bricks worth of space was opened up in the wall next to her and that section of it crumbled to the ground.  
  
When she looked up to see the guards, she followed their gaze to the newly made door, as they watched and waited for the dust to clear.  
  
"You..." came the voice amidst the rubble "You...bastards...!!" it snarled dangerously.  
  
Kagome's eyes lit up as she could finally see the hanyou figure standing amidst the dust. "Inuyasha...!" she managed between her labored breaths, holding a hand over her side as she winced. Dumb rib cage...  
  
His golden eyes were eerily shadowed as he stepped forward menacingly and stood in front of her. "Bastards!" he growled in the same dangerous tone as he snapped his head up to face them, revealing the three red stripes on his right cheek.  
  
The officers took a step back towards the door, keeping their wary eyes glued to the hanyou.  
  
Kagome gasped; blood... blood had just dripped from his back. She had been the only one who noticed it because she was behind him...but did that mean his wounds had reopened? Wait, he was going to try and fight with those giant wounds on his back?! He was gonna bleed to death! She had to stop that idiot before he did something really stupid.  
  
"Inuyasha - you really shouldn't fight! You're injur-"  
  
"I'm perfectly fine!" he snapped, keeping his eyes on his targets.  
  
She started to stand up to face him. "No you're n-!"  
  
Inuyasha turned around swiftly and watched as she cringed and started to fall backwards. He jumped down and caught her quickly, setting her down carefully. "Stupid girl! You're the one who's injured! Now just sit still, okay?" he scolded her sternly, standing up to face the officers again.  
  
Only to find that they weren't cowering anymore; advancing, more like. Weren't they supposed to be afraid of him...?  
  
"So... you're injured, brat?" he spat out mockingly. Oh, had they let the word 'injured' slip out somewhere? That's right...he'd purposely interrupted her when she'd started to announce it...not that it mattered anyway. As if he'd let a little injury deter him from ripping them to shreds.  
  
"Heh heh...you really think that that..." he raised his eyes to meet the man's, a devilish grin on his face. "...would stop me?"  
  
"We'll see about that..." he glared as he drew his sword from under his cloak; his three comrades doing the same.  
  
Wait a second! His sword? Those assholes, they were hiding those the whole time! But yet again, it mattered none - he was gonna kill them anyway.  
  
Well, may as well get this over with...  
  
Inuyasha raised his claws and, jumping as high as the ceiling would let him, swung his arm and vanquished his rivals.  
  
Or he would have, if he hadn't heard her scream first.  
  
He spun around to see why she would just outright shriek like that; what could have happened?  
  
More guards were there; a lot more. Not to mention that one of them had the back of a dagger held in front of said girl's neck.  
  
"Don't make any sudden moves" he started, switching the blade on the small knife so it was held against her neck "Or the little girl here's not gonna live to see another day."  
  
"Damnit...!" he cursed under his breath. What the hell was going on here!?  
  
He watched her as she formed his name pleadingly with her lips, staring at him earnestly all the while. He could tell she was terrified...her eyes were filled with tears just ready to spill.  
  
"Now..." the man continued, still holding the knife close to her neck "Just be a good boy and cooperate with these officers over here," he said, jerking his chin to the six or seven armed officers on his right "and we won't harm the girl."  
  
Well that was a load of crap.  
  
But he couldn't try to attack them; they'd kill her. So what should he do?  
  
Ah! That might work... it was such a simple -yet risky- plan, but because of the simplicity of it, he wasn't even sure if it could be called a plan. In the mean time though, he'd just have to cooperate with them...  
  
So he stood there and shot as many vicious glares as he could at the guards while they clamped the shackles onto his wrists.  
  
Too bad he'd already nicked the keys.  
  
He inwardly smirked as mister 'threaten innocent girls lives' slowly put the dagger back into its sheath and stood up in a rather triumphant position. All the while mister 'torture innocent girls' was standing in a very similar position across the cell.  
  
Sick idiots....  
  
He waited for the guards to start walking him away, and got ready to make his move. This should work out dandy! Okay...right...now!  
  
Just as they were walking him past the girl, he jerked his arms to the side, yanking the other end of the chain out of the officer's hands as he gave him a good punch in the face; repeating the latter action -or variations of it- with the next six guards standing around him. He was feeling kinda lucky that there was a pretty large chunk of chain connecting his hands; at least he had some room to move his arms. He didn't exactly have the time to unchain himself right now.  
  
Alright! Next, he was gonna deal with mister 'threaten innocent girl's lives' and mister 'torture innocent girls'.  
  
Er...wait. Maybe he should just get the hell out of there. Those jerks had called in a few more reinforcements...  
  
Yeah. Especially since his back was bleeding like old faithful right now, and he was just getting a little bit dizzy...  
  
Not to mention that he had to carry the girl out too...  
  
But...how was he gonna get out of there?  
  
Well, that was for the next few seconds to decide.  
  
A/N - That chapter name is so uncreative. . It's really bugging me... How'd I do with spelling and grammar? Good, bad, okay? Oh, and sorry for the cliffy. ^ ^; I know, they're evil... and it wasn't really that bad of a cliffy, was it? ^.^; Anyway, I really appreciate your opinions on my humble little story. So a pre-thanks to anyone who does review! ^_^  
  
~Eternal White~ (I know... that's boring too... .) 


	5. Dog Demon?

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^  
  
A/N - YES!!! Mediaminer lets me read my reviews now!! XD I'm so happy! Anyway, I'm really sorry for taking almost a week to update. I wanted to finish the chapter on Monday...but as you can see, that was a frail attempt. ¬_¬ So umm...yea. Let's just get to the story, right? ^_^;  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 5  
  
Dog Demon?  
  
Inuyasha stood there in desperation, sparing a scant glance at each of his seven KOed victims as he tried to think of any promising ways to escape.  
  
He didn't know what to do. He still had those damn chains on his hands, and his back was still bleeding like heck... So how was he going to get out of there? There was always that girl to think about too... he couldn't just leave her here.  
  
Speaking of...  
  
He looked over to see if she was okay... Apparently not. He balled his fists and clenched his jaw in anger as the asshole that had been threatening her life a few minutes ago was standing there harassing her. He was ordering her to stand up; only to watch her try to listen to him and fall down in anguish again, and then roughly dragging her up by her hair. Then he growled something in her ear and kneed her in the back, letting her carelessly drop to the floor. She was crying again too...  
  
"Bastard!!" he barked ferociously at the man, shooting him a vicious look.  
  
A few of the guards had taken several wary steps towards him, gluing their eyes to him incase he decided to slash them to bits. Now there was an idea...  
  
But no, that wouldn't work. It wouldn't exactly solve all the problems he had at the moment...most likely, it would just have the opposite effect.  
  
He was running out of choices...and he didn't have any time to waste...!  
  
So he made his move.  
  
~~*~~  
  
If Kagome hadn't been petrified she would have sighed in pure relief when the man who was holding the dagger up to her throat sheathed it and stood up about a foot away from her. That freak had had an arm around her middle, pressing quite painfully against her rib cage. She wasn't sure if she'd broken anything, or if she was just a little bruised...but it still hurt.  
  
These guards were really scaring the crap out of her. Why were they so cruel? And if they kidnapped her because she was the princess of the western kingdom, why were they treating her this way? (A/N - Oh great. When I wrote 'the western kingdom' it makes it sound like Kagome's a cowgirl or something... )  
  
It had really surprised her when Inuyasha had out-and-out ripped half the wall down and came to her rescue. Then again, she hadn't exactly expected him to sit there and do nothing... what had she expected him to do? She was kind of curious as to why he had been so...upset, though. He'd even snapped at her when she'd tried to stop him.  
  
She inwardly kicked herself as realization hit her; she'd told them he was injured! That hadn't been the wisest of choices... It put him at even more of a disadvantage. Now she understood why he'd wanted her to shut up...  
  
Although, what had surprised her more than anything was when she'd fallen. He'd caught her so swiftly and sat her down so gently... she couldn't blame him for scolding her though; he was right. She should have been more cautions... but...she still had to wonder; where had mister tough guy gone for those three little seconds?  
  
Savior or not, she was still a little bit upset with him. That jerk kept calling her a 'stupid girl', and it was kind of getting to her. That badass attitude of his just didn't go away, did it?  
  
But... she wasn't too angry with him. After all, his wound had reopened when he'd smashed the wall...it must have been dreadfully painful... And he'd done it just to save her, so she really couldn't be upset with him.  
  
Kagome dragged herself back to present matters as she watched some of the men clamp shackles onto his wrists and start to pull him away.  
  
Now she was entering super super panic mode. They were taking him away...! That would mean there'd be no one to protect her from them!! Had he really been dumb enough to believe that they wouldn't harm her? He may have been a jerk, but she didn't think he was stupid...  
  
But maybe...he was right. There wasn't anything he could do, was there? If he tried to fight, he'd probably kill himself from blood loss; the blood would flow quicker if he was fighting. Plus, he had restraints on his wrists, and she figured that it would be just a little bit tricky to hurl a blow with those on.  
  
She flicked her attention back on Inuyasha as he jerked his chains out of the officers grasp and smacked him right in the middle of his face, delivering the same basic treatment to the six other guards that were surrounding him; his shackles whirling around as he went about his business.  
  
Well, he'd proven her wrong.  
  
"Get up, girl." Kagome looked up to see the man who'd threatened her earlier standing over her now.  
  
But how was she supposed to follow his order? As she'd proven before, she couldn't stand up. She'd just fall back down again ...But she had to try anyway.  
  
So she held her breath as she pushed herself onto her knees and tried to pull herself up off the cold floor, only to double over in pain as she fell back down in a heap onto the hard stone. The officer grabbed her hair and jerked her up harshly; she gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut as she felt the hot tears falling from her eyes.  
  
She just stayed there limply as he kept a firm grip on her long raven tresses. "You should learn to listen a little better, princess!" he spat as smacked his knee into her back and carelessly let her drop to the floor.  
  
Kagome resisted the immensely strong urge to set free the sobs that the had locked up inside herself as she watched a few of her own tears drop to the ground in front of her. She pushed herself onto her knees once again, keeping her face low and out of the view of the unfeeling officer standing a couple of feet from her left side. Damnit! That man had just announced that she was a princess... did Inuyasha hear?  
  
Finally, several of the other officers stepped towards Inuyasha slowly, watching him in an anxious sort of way.  
  
But he didn't move; he just stood there. What was he doing?! He'd broken free (to some extent), so why wasn't he moving?  
  
Then, in a flash, Inuyasha jumped between Kagome and her persecutor with an enraged look on his face. He grabbed the man by his throat and raised his claws -as far as his restraints would allow- to strike him.  
  
"Inuyasha no!" Kagome choked as she grabbed the material that hung loosely around his leg; staring straight into his eyes when he turned to face her. (Not that he let go of a certain someone's neck, mind you. ^ ^;;) "Don't..." she started as she drew her hand back, lowering her gaze from his questioning one to the floor at his feet. "...Don't kill him."  
  
No one moved as Inuyasha shot a confused, fiery look at her. "Why?!" he snapped "Why shouldn't I kill him?! He was hurting you on purpose! And enjoying it!! Him, that old bastard, and the guy with the whip over there." he jerked a quick glance at the other two men across the room "I really should just kill all of them!! Why in hell would you want me to spare those bastards?!" he shouted fiercely at her.  
  
"Because it's not all their fault!" she shouted back, her voice hitching considerably. "That's how they were raised! It's how they were trained! Sure - they have free will, but that's all they know how to do, and it's all their told to do! So you just can't kill them for that..." she looked up at him pleadingly "Everyone deserves a second chance, Inuyasha. So please...just don't."  
  
Inuyasha growled in frustration and gave the man a hard punch, sending him to the floor. He turned around and stared the older officer in the eye. "I swear, if you or anyone else here deals out any more brutal, unnecessary punishments, I'll come back here and kill you all. And..." he added with a slight smirk "If I were you, I'd be thanking this girl over here for saving your lives. If she hadn't said anything, I would have ripped you all to shreds by now."  
  
Kagome smiled up at Inuyasha; she was proud of him - despite his attitude. He could easily have killed that officer -whether he was wounded or not-, but he didn't. So, did that mean that even Inuyasha had a little bit of good in him...?  
  
She looked over to the other guards, wanting to see their reaction. Only...it wasn't what she thought it would be. They were all kind of... sneering...in a very bad sense. That didn't look so good...  
  
She moved her eyes back to Inuyasha, wanting to see what he thought of the situation. He was intently watching the men with the same kind of bemused look she was wearing; he looked a little bit upset though...  
  
Then she saw it. She saw why all the officers wore the expressions they did. "Inuyasha!! Look out for-!"  
  
...too late. She was too late.  
  
Kagome watched in horror as a sword was pierced straight through Inuyasha's back and the end of the blade protruded from his stomach. "No!" she silently screamed "This can't be happening! Inuyasha just can't die!"  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha gave a strangled cry and fell to his hands and knees, the chains clanking on the floor in front of him, as the razor-sharp weapon was wrenched back out of him. "D-Damnit..." he turned his head up weakly to see his attacker. His eyes widened in rage at what he saw. "Y-You...!!" he fumed "You bastard!! I let you live...! You ungrateful asshole!!"  
  
The officer looked down at him smugly "Well...for you, sparing me was a bad choice." He began as he stepped closer to him, his sword still drawn "But for me...?" he said, cockily raising an eyebrow "Apparently, a very good one."  
  
And this was a very bad situation. He didn't know how in hell he was going to get out of this mess he'd gotten himself into. He couldn't even gather enough strength to stand up and tear that guy in half... so how was he gonna escape with the girl alive? Things couldn't possibly get any worse...  
  
"You know, I was never given any orders not to kill you..." he said in an idle tone as he looked over the blade in his hand. "And you're quite a nuisance...so..." he continued as he glanced down at the infuriated hanyou. "Why should I keep you around?" The guard raised his blade several feet above Inuyasha's neck "All I'd have to do is drop this, and you'd be dead. It's as easy as that."  
  
Inuyasha glared hard at the man above him; this guy was such a bastard...didn't he get the fact that Inuyasha was a hanyou? All he had to do was squiggle out of the way. What an idiot...  
  
But still, Inuyasha was running a little low in the energy area. 'Squiggling out of the way' might not save him completely...he had to get out of there right this minute. No time to beat up any jerks, no time to go bastard-bashing...he had to run for it, and that was that.  
  
The officer, somewhat baffled as to why the boy below him wasn't cowering in fear of shouting in anger, snapped back at him. "What's the matter boy!? Do you want to die, by any chance?! I could kill you or your little girlfriend here any time I wanted to!"  
  
Like he said, bad situation.  
  
The officer gave him an unexpected kick in the side and sent him rolling into the knees of a certain girl.  
  
"Inuyasha...!!" Kagome gasped and laid her hand gingerly on his arm, bringing the other to her mouth as she stared at him wide-eyed. "Y-You're so badly injured..."  
  
"Got a problem, girl?" the older man took a few steps and stood in front of her as he spoke. "You're damn lucky I was ordered not to kill you." He said with a little bit of bitterness in his voice. "But..." he continued "They never told me I couldn't smack you up a little."  
  
Kagome stiffened at that. "Ooh crap...I-I don't have any way out of this..." she thought as she recognized the feeling of panic rising inside her once again. Inuyasha was down and out; he hadn't opened his eyes at all. He wasn't dead though, she could feel him breathing.  
  
"I-I..." she stuttered blankly and shifted back on the pavement as the man stepped over Inuyasha and moved towards her. What could she do...?! She hated feeling weak and helpless...unable to defend herself...  
  
She scooted away frantically as he kept walking steadily nearer. Crap...  
  
A light gasp flew from her as she hit what remained of the wall Inuyasha had shredded. Just her luck...  
  
Not to mention that any microscopic fleck of humor she might have had left inside her was blown away as he drew his leg back to strike her. She locked her eyes shut and let out a pained cry as she felt his boot slamming into her ribs. She didn't have to open her eyes to know he was going to do it again either...  
  
Kagome released another shriek and drew a hand to her throbbing middle as she slowly opened one eye to look up at the man...but she snapped it shut again and yelped in pain as he hurled another blow. What should she do...?  
  
"I-Inuy-yasha..." she gasped, as if he would suddenly get up and leap to her aid at the utterance of his name. Wishful thinking...  
  
She creaked her eyes opened for a split second, just to see if her hopes had been high enough to change the direction that the current course of events had been going in.  
  
Nope. She slammed them closed again and braced herself for the fourth hit. That had been a stupid notion...  
  
A quick beat of silence passed, and all of a sudden, Kagome felt a slight...shove - ish. She was a tad numb...so it was a difficult to discern. Then she felt sort of...up. So that wasn't proper English, but still...that was how she felt. Like she was floating or something...her senses weren't responding to the coldness floor anymore. And what was that clinking noise she was hearing? Had the third hit been to her head...?  
  
And why hadn't it hurt when he'd kicked her...? Or furthermore, had he kicked her at all? She peaked her eye open with slight anxiousness...  
  
Kagome blinked in confusion. Yup, that last hit had definitely been to her head. Either that or that was really Inuyasha's blood stained haori two inches away from her nose. She looked up hopefully "Inu...yasha?" He didn't answer her, he just stood there.  
  
For a second at least...  
  
Another sudden action of his had her bewildered. He was all but heading straight for the guards...! What the hell did this nut think he was doing?! They were holding swords in their hands! "Inuyasha! What are you doing?!" Again, he gave her no response, but went about his business of confusing her. Did he really that stopping right in front of those crazy guards was the best of ideas...?  
  
Speaking of crazy guards, what happened to that other guy?  
  
She adverted her attention back to Inuyasha as he started to speak. "...Move." He ordered through hooded eyes.  
  
The guards just shot him angry looks. "Know your place, boy!" the older one shouted as he drew his sword. Was it just her, or did all the older guards have the worst attitudes...?  
  
"...I warned you." He spoke menacingly, bringing his face up once again.  
  
Kagome gasped and stared wide-eyed at Inuyasha. His eyes...they were...  
  
...red.  
  
She might not have known much about Inuyasha, but she knew that his eyes weren't normally red - they were gold. And his voice wasn't usually like that...when he'd spoken just now, it had had a very...careless, almost...bloodthirsty tone. That wasn't right...  
  
Kagome yelped as Inuyasha abruptly dropped her to the floor and raised his binded arm, stretching his claws and cracking his fingers. "...it's..." he started with an ominous tone as his eyes gleamed with fire. "...over."  
  
She sat there in terror as Inuyasha jumped forward with inhuman speed and swung his claws, spilling the blood of the four guards that had stood there. W-what happened to him...?! She stared at him as he lifted his hand again to slaughter another group. He just couldn't do that... she wouldn't let him! "Inuyasha! Stop it!! What are you doing?!" she screamed at him frantically.  
  
But he just ignored her, leaving her no reply as he slayed another group...  
  
...with a smirk on his face.  
  
All the tears that she had bottled up and begged not to spill slowly escaped from her wide eyes, running down her cheeks and dripping lightly onto the ground. "I-Inuyasha...?" Couldn't he hear her? Didn't he know that she was calling to him - begging him to stop?  
  
He raised his arm again to butcher the last group of officers. She couldn't watch this happen...it was wrong...that couldn't have been Inuyasha. He was murdering all these officers with a grin on his face. That was completely wrong.  
  
Kagome jumped up and ran to him, pushing down the overpowering, shooting pain that valiantly threatened to pull her down, and threw her arms around his waist, slumping against him for lack of strength. "...Stop" she whispered "Please stop." She buried her face and fisted her hands in the back of his haori, pleading with him as she silently cried. (A/N - We'll say she was a little to the left of the big gaping hole in his back... )  
  
Everything was completely silent, with the exception of Kagome's nearly inaudible sobs, for a solid minute or two - until Inuyasha finally spoke up. "Ka...Kagome..." he said quietly and turned his head towards her "What... are you doing?" he questioned slowly.  
  
She turned her tear-stained face towards his bewildered one. What had he just said? He'd...he'd called her by her name...she'd never heard him do that before. "S-sorry..." she apologized hastily and dropped herself down on the floor; she was so tired...But she wasn't done yet; she wanted to know if Inuyasha was really back in his right mind. "Inuyasha...? Are you okay...? What happened...just now?"  
  
He was looking at her with such a perplexed, confused expression...like he was at a total loss. "I...I'm fine...I don't know what happened..." he trailed as he looked down at his hands. "What did I do?" he breathed, an ashamed tone in his voice as he sucked in a shaken breath.  
  
Kagome was taken aback. He didn't know what he'd done? Didn't he know what had happened to himself? "You..." she looked at him with pity in her eyes "Inuyasha...y-you killed them."  
  
"...Why...?" he whispered, a pinch of anger hitching his voice "...What happened to me?" he moved his gaze back to hers.  
  
She shook her head solemnly and looked down at the floor. "I...don't know." What had happened? She wanted to know too... "Your eyes turned red...and then you..." she glanced up at him "Are you sure that you can't remember anything?"  
  
"Nothing..." he looked back down at his bloodstained claws "...Their blood...my hands are covered in it." His voice seemed to falter slightly as he stared at his hands "I killed them."  
  
Kagome suddenly remembered something. She and Inuyasha had kind of been lost in some far off world or something...but what had happened to the last few guards? She shot a curious glance in their direction and her mouth opened in mild surprise.  
  
"P-Please..." the one in front stuttered as he dropped to his knees. "D-Don't kill us...!!" she watched in amazement as all the others did the same.  
  
"Don't plan to..." he muttered angrily and shook his head as tuned to Kagome. "Can you walk?" he asked gruffly. Well that was a sudden attitude change...  
  
But to answer his question; could she walk? She wasn't exactly sure...When she'd ran over and tried to stop him, she had felt like she'd collapse from the pain...So she really preferred not to walk...but she didn't want to make Inuyasha carry her either. His wounds were ten times worse than hers...How the heck was he still alive anyway? "I think I can..." she answered hesitantly.  
  
He watched her skeptically as she tried to stand up. What did she think he was, stupid? He knew she couldn't walk, he'd seen her try to stand up earlier.  
  
'Wait...if you already knew, then why'd you ask?'  
  
'Umm....'  
  
...Okay, so he didn't have an answer for that one.  
  
Inuyasha saw her cringe in pain and slump back down onto the floor. "Don't be stupid, girl." He said strictly as he knelt down next to her "You can't walk, so don't pretend."  
  
A tiny match was lit inside Kagome when he'd called her 'stupid' again. For a few minutes, she thought he'd actually be decent and call her by her name from then on.  
  
According to the grapevine, he didn't plan on it.  
  
Inuyasha scooped her up in his -still chained- arms and walked to the cell door, opening it calmly enough, without looking back at the pleading guards. She sucked in the burning pain in her middle and glanced up at the tranquil expression he was wearing, and then out at the hallway they were entering, examining it cautiously. "Inuyasha...we should be careful. There'll most likely be more guards hanging around-"  
  
"I know." He replied snippily, his expression unchanging as he glanced both ways down the long corridor. "Which way did they bring me from?" he asked blankly without looking at her.  
  
"Umm...that way I think." She pointed to his left. He nodded and made his way down the hall at a moderate pace, following the twists and turns rather smoothly. Whoa...where in hells were all the guards? Had they all gone down to her cell? No...there had to be more than that...  
  
Kagome looked up at Inuyasha inquisitively; what was he sniffing at? Or, to rephrase the question, why was he sniffing? He'd said he was half demon...but what was his demon half? Fox...or wolf, perhaps? She was curious... "Inuyasha?"  
  
"What?" he responded breezily, once again, not bothering to look at her.  
  
"You said you were half demon, right?"  
  
He seemed to stiffen at that statement, but nevertheless, answered her with a nod.  
  
"So..." she continued tentatively "What's your demon half? Are you half fox demon? Or half wolf demon...? Or-"  
  
"I am not half wolf demon!" he snapped and shot her a glare. She hadn't missed the way that he'd cringed when he'd said 'wolf', either. "I'm half dog demon..." he grumbled, looking forward again.  
  
She frowned at his attitude. What was so horrible about that? Personally, she though his ears were really cute. Not to mention the hair and the awesome claws...  
  
Speaking of...! "I'm-"no wait... This may not have been the best of times to ask how he learned 'Sankontetsou'. He was probably a little depressed... after all; he'd just killed a lot of people.  
  
Kagome kind of wondered why he wasn't all down in the dumps and miserable. She would have been. Or... had he killed before...? She didn't think he would have; he didn't look like some crazy murderer to her...but it was still a probability, a very small one from her point of view...  
  
"You're what?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her as he walked.  
  
"Huh?" she was a little befuddled. What was he talking about...?  
  
Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her "You said 'I'm', so I asked you 'You're what?'"  
  
"I'm..." "Okay Kagome, think of an excuse, and do it fast..." "...tired?" she answered slowly. Well that was brilliant...  
  
'You're tired...' he snorted to himself 'You're not the one who's been fighting...not to mention the hole in my stomach.' "Whatever..." he mumbled as he looked forward, only to stop abruptly.  
  
Kagome gazed up at him as he stood there with a slight grin on his face. "Just as I though..."  
  
"What?" she questioned eagerly "What are you talking about?"  
  
"This," he stated, gesturing to the door in front of him. "Is out exit."  
  
She turned her head expectantly, wondering why he was so confident all of a sudden. "How do you know that isn't gonna lead us into a pool of guards...?"  
  
"Oh, it probably is." He nodded with sort of a... mock cheeriness. What was with him and his mood swings...?  
  
"So...you could care less if the guards out there just happen to come after us...?"  
  
He shrugged indifferently "I'm not really worried about that - I can outrun them any day."  
  
Kagome just gawked at him. He really was an idiot, wasn't he...? "Inuyasha! That's ridiculous. Number one, you're injured; badly. Number two, you'd be carrying me; that'd probably make it a little more difficult as well. And number three, you don't know how many men are out there! There could be thousands for all you know!"  
  
He gave her a flat look "Do you seriously think that there will be thousands of guards out there?"  
  
"You know that wasn't the point!" she growled back at him.  
  
"So?"  
  
"Ugh!" she bellowed. "Fine! Let's just go out there, and if we die, we die!"  
  
"And here I thought you were an optimist..." he grumbled as he stepped up to the door. "Well, here goes nuthin'!"  
  
A/N - Bwahahaha! An evil cliffy! XD Hahah- Sorry. V_V In all honesty, I really don't end where I do on purpose, it just happens. ^.^ And I'll apologize again for taking almost a week to update. I really don't mean to take so long... ^ ^; eep... so yea. Please excuse my spelling errors, grammar errors, any OOC ness I might have accidentally stuck in there, and my incredibly uncreative chapter names. Ja!  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	6. Parting Words

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^  
  
A/N - La la la la la... update, anyone? ^_^  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 6  
  
Parting Words  
  
Inuyasha drew his foot back, bracing himself to kick down the door before him. "One...two...thr-!"  
  
"Inuyasha."  
  
He furrowed his brow slightly at her "What now?" he griped.  
  
"What about the handcuffs?" she inquired curiously.  
  
"Oh...guess I should take them off..." he grumbled and set her down on the floor, reaching into his sleeve and pulling out a set of keys.  
  
Kagome stared at him in surprise "Where did you get those?"  
  
A smirk crossed his face as he tried the first key "Doesn't matter" he said loosely as he let go of it with a frown and tried another. "I've got 'em now, don't I?"  
  
She narrowed her eyes at him "Did you take it fro-"  
  
"I might have" he interrupted, the smirk returning to his face. "Why won't any of these damn keys work...?" he grouched as he tried a fourth and a fifth one.  
  
Kagome sighed and folded her arms, this guy wasn't gonna listen to her, so why argue with him? She had to hold back a little laugh as she watched him try the different keys though. Didn't he know what he was doing? "Inuyasha..." she started with a smiling tone in her voice "You're putting them in wrong!"  
  
"I am not!" he shouted at his own defense "I know how to put a key in a lock!"  
  
She just sat there and grinned at his idiocy. She'd just let him try all the keys and when he'd figured out that none of them would work the way he was putting them in, she'd help him out. Might take him a while though...  
  
After he'd tried all eleven keys he threw them to the floor and walked back over to Kagome. "None of those are right..." he growled as he sat down. "Damn guard didn't have the right ones..."  
  
"One of them is right!" Kagome corrected helpfully.  
  
Inuyasha rolled his eyes at her and shook his head "I tried every single key, stupid. None of them fit!"  
  
She sighed and repeated his actions. "I told you - you weren't putting them in the right way!"  
  
"Yes I was!" he snapped.  
  
"No you weren't!" she snapped back.  
  
"Prove it!"  
  
"Fine!"  
  
Inuyasha stood up and stomped over to the keys, picking them up and walking back over to Kagome. "Here." he said and shoved them in her hands, holding his wrist out expectantly.  
  
Kagome desperately tried to keep the grin off her face as she looked at the lock in his left wrist, then at each of the keys. She snatched the correct one in her hand, letting the rest dangle noisily on the key ring as she grabbed his left wrist and pushed the key in the lock. She turned it proudly and beamed triumphantly as the shackle unlatched itself from his arm and dropped to the ground. Then she quickly pulled his other arm towards her and repeated the process.  
  
Inuyasha blinked at her in shock "What the hell..." he mumbled "How'd you do that?"  
  
Kagome smiled in recollection as she explained with modest enthusiasm "When I was really little, one of the things my brother would do when we got bored was sneak down to the old prison cells and play with all the locks on the chains and such...so I got really good at opening them." she chuckled a little as she continued "One time, there was a guard who'd fallen asleep on duty, and so while he was still dozing we chained his ankle to the chair, and we tied one of the prison dog's leashes to his arm..." she brought her hand to her mouth as she laughed energetically. "You should have seen him when he got...up..." she trialed as she realized where her other hand was...  
  
A slightly flustered feeling swept over her as she looked up at Inuyasha; watching the almost unnoticeable grin that had been there gradually slide away to be replaced with a hardened expression as he perceived the same thing she did. He jerked his arm back protectively and turned his gaze to his side.  
  
"Sorry..." Kagome apologized quietly as she moved her eyes to her knees, subconsciously rubbing her offended hand. What just happened there?  
  
"...We should leave..." Inuyasha said evenly after a long pause.  
  
Kagome nodded politely and sat forward as Inuyasha picked her up and walked back to the door; this time not bothering for a big entrance, just simply kicking it open.  
  
But they didn't find what they had expected to.  
  
"Inuyasha...!" Kagome stuttered out as she hid her flushed face in his haori "I-I don't think this is the..."  
  
"...the right room." he finished as he hurriedly shut the door and stalked the other way; his eyebrow twitching in irritation. "What moron decided to stick a damn bathing room this close to the prison cells?!"  
  
~~*~~  
  
"...Kanna." A deep voice called from its position at the end of the gloomy hall. "Has the boy been caught?"  
  
"He was, lord Naraku..." the young girl's voice replied somberly "But..." she informed as she tilted her mirror to face him. "He has escaped from his chamber..."  
  
"And not alone either, Naraku." The voice of another young woman intervened. "He's brought the little princess with him."  
  
Naraku narrowed his eyes as she stepped into the small ray of light that was sliding through one of the open windows. "Kagura..." he started disdainfully "Where have you been?"  
  
She stared at him, a smirk crossing her face "Just checking up on a few things..." she told him leisurely as she flicked open her fan. It really wasn't much of his business...so why tell him? Plus, there was no harm in aggravating him just a little bit...  
  
"Why weren't you keeping an eye on the boy?" he asked her composedly.  
  
Kagura shrugged it off as she turned her back to him "I was sort of...preoccupied." She saucily dropped over her shoulder as she strolled back down the hall.  
  
"Kagura." He said sternly, making her stop and look rather irritably over her shoulder at him. "Catch them." he said as he showed his face in the light. "And do it quickly."  
  
She furrowed her brow and turned her gaze towards Kanna as she answered him indignantly. "Yes, Naraku."  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Kagome inquired suspiciously as he stomped down the hall.  
  
"Yes!"  
  
Same answer as usual....but it was obvious that he had no clue where he was.  
  
"But this is the fourth time we've been down this corridor..."  
  
"No it isn't!" he snapped.  
  
"Inuyasha..." she sighed as they reached the end of the passageway once again. "Maybe I could try and help...?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"But I might be able to-"  
  
"Just let me handle this, okay!" he barked as he turned right for the fifth time. Okay...there was officially something wrong with him. Doubtless it had something to do with the fact that he seemed a bit...groggy...  
  
"...Are you okay?"  
  
"Fine." He answered quickly, frustration hinting his voice.  
  
Well that was a total lie. The guy had a freaking hole in his stomach! Perhaps she should rephrase the question... "Are your wounds bothering you?"  
  
"No, of course not. I only have a gap the size of my arm going straight through my stomach. Why the hell would I be in pain?"  
  
Kagome winced; you know the saying 'you could cut the tension with a knife'? Well, it'd take a machete to cut the sarcasm he'd loaded that statement with. And if he was really in that much pain, he shouldn't be carrying her... "Inuyasha...put me down."  
  
"Don't be stupid." He sighed "You know you can't walk."  
  
"I swear..." she thought "Inuyasha's attitude changes every five seconds..." "Well, that was a while ago...I should be fine now." She reasoned optimistically "Besides, it'd probably do me some good to walk for a while!"  
  
Inuyasha furrowed his brow at her disbelievingly. What was she on about...? He kept his doubtful gaze on her as he set her down cautiously.  
  
Kagome frenetically tried to keep her legs straight as she felt the pads of her feet touch the cold floor. She'd have to ignore any pain she felt and walk on her own; she couldn't make Inuyasha carry her any longer, his injuries were much more severe than hers.  
  
She gasped lightly as he released her watchfully and let her support her own weight. Forget any ideas she had of walking on her own; she wasn't gonna last three steps...! "Aep!" she yelped as her knees buckled under the strain in her ribs and fell against Inuyasha's arm. (And clung to it for dear life... -.- )  
  
Inuyasha flinched and stiffened his upper body in an effort make holding her up a little easier. "I told you you couldn't walk!" he retorted angrily. "You should've listened to me, you stupid girl!"  
  
She snapped her head up to face him "Well I'm sorry then!" she shouted furiously, still clinging to his arm. "I only wanted to walk so that you wouldn't have to carry me anymore! You don't have to be so mean about it, you - you big jerk!"  
  
"I didn't mind carrying you! You didn't have to ask to get down, idiot!" he snapped as he shot her a glare.  
  
Kagome's jaw dropped; how rude could he be!? First he called her stupid, now he was calling her an idiot! Well wait...actually, she wasn't doing much better than he was; she'd called him a jerk... "A-and who says I can't walk?!" she came back with pitifully. Couldn't she have thought of something better...?  
  
"Ugh!" he bellowed "You just fucking collapsed! Are you trying to tell me that you can walk just fine?!"  
  
She opened her mouth to reply, only to snap it shut again for lack of a reply. He'd gotten her with that one... "...Okay." she surrendered "But...how about I just use your arm as a walking stick. Wouldn't that be easier than carrying me?"  
  
Inuyasha looked thoughtful for a second "I guess so..." he answered as he looked down at the floor. "A walking stick, huh?" he added flatly.  
  
"E-eh heh heh..." she chortled uneasily; she would have placed her hand to the back of her neck if she hadn't remembered that she'd fall in the process...  
  
She watched him curiously as he shook his head with a distressed grin, as if he was dismissing a current thought or memory. "Let's go." He said promptly. She nodded unquestioningly and tottered slowly beside him, leaning on his arm all the while. He seemed to tighten up considerably though...  
  
They walked through the halls for quite a time, and Kagome's ribs hadn't really been bothering her too much. When they'd reach a 'fork in the corridor', so to speak, she'd point the direction she thought was correct as Inuyasha would either agree, disagree, or completely shrug it off, then they'd continue on their way once reaching another decision. "Hmm..." Kagome speculated as they reached the end of a different hall "Do you think we should go straight, or to the right?" she asked as she shifted her eyes from the hall in front of her to Inuyasha.  
  
He sniffed the air for a moment and then frowned in puzzlement. "...Neither." He answered, not sure if he was correct himself.  
  
"Neither...?" she reiterated, clearly confused as well.  
  
"Well that's what I said, isn't it?" he countered sarcastically. "It isn't either way...in fact, the scent seems to be coming from..." he turned his head to the left, staring at the wall with a mystified expression.  
  
"...the wall?" Kagome finished as she repeated the latter gesture.  
  
He nodded "Yeah, I can almost guarantee it."  
  
"Then...what should we do?"  
  
"Break it down...?" he guessed.  
  
She gave him a dull expression "How? You aren't really in any condition to do that."  
  
"Fine then! Our only other option is to say 'open sesame' and hope for the best!" he griped.  
  
"...Open sesame...?" Kagome tried with a glance at the wall. "Well, I guess we're out of options then..." she looked over at Inuyasha's blank expression expectantly. For some reason or another, the silence that was stretching through the air just then was rather tense...so if he wasn't gonna break it, she was. "...Umm...why don't we take a rest for a minute or so...?"  
  
He shrugged nonchalantly "Whatever..."  
  
They slouched over to the left wall and Inuyasha sat down in a pretzel first as Kagome doddered down beside him, straightening her legs ahead of her. But just as they both leaned back against the wall...  
  
"Eep!" Kagome squeaked in unison with Inuyasha's 'Nangh!' as they both fell backwards onto the stone floor.  
  
"What in the..."  
  
"An illusion spell!" Kagome exclaimed in realization "I get it now! There really isn't a wall here!" she clarified as she sat up and swiped her hand through the now partially- transparent wall.  
  
"So that's why the scent was coming from this direction..." Inuyasha elucidated for himself. "Trash that rest then!" he said as he swiftly got to his feet.  
  
Kagome snapped her fingers in disappointment; a rest would have been nice... "Kay..." she complied as she stood up reluctantly and turned around, fastening herself to Inuyasha's left arm once again, and once again, feeling him tense up. He seemed extremely uncomfortable having her on his arm like that...it wasn't like they had a lot of other choices though. But when she looked up in front of them, she gasped in surprise. "The exit!" (A/N - Hmm...this would be the perfect place to stop...but I'm in a pretty good mood, and I'm not that evil anyway. ^_^ Not to mention this chapter would be way to short...)  
  
Inuyasha blinked in bafflement (A/N - That so doesn't look like a real word... ^.^;) "Wow...didn't think we were this close to it." He replied as he ogled at the slightly opened door.  
  
"This is great!" Kagome squealed in excitement. "We're getting out of here!"  
  
That reminded him...he'd wanted to know how long she'd been in there. But just as he parted his lips and was about to verbalize his thoughts, he stopped himself. If he asked her that, it would sound like he actually cared. Which, of course, he didn't; his curiosity was just getting the better of him. 'Care...' his mind scoffed 'Now there's a word I haven't heard in a while...'  
  
"C'mon, Inuyasha!" she chirped as she tugged him forward while she took a step further herself.  
  
"Coming, coming..." he mumbled as he trailed slowly after her. (Or was tugged slowly after her, rather. ^_^)  
  
When they reached the door, a beaming Kagome flung it open in a hurry and hauled a slumping Inuyasha with her. "Oh crap..." he thought. "Here comes the light...!" Inuyasha quickly flung his spare arm in front of his eyes in an effort to spare himself from losing his sight.  
  
"Whoa..." Kagome breathed as the bright sunlight hit her full in the face. She had to keep her eyes closed for a minute, then finally resorted to squinting. "I'll never take sunlight for granted again!" she shouted with a laugh as she dragged Inuyasha out the door with her. She wasn't gonna let her injuries get her down; not this time.  
  
She sucked in a breath of fresh air and looked up at the cloudless sky. Truly, she would have preferred a few fluffy giant cotton balls scattered here and there...but she'd take what she could get. Then she remembered another thing she'd missed quite a bit in that minuscule little chamber. "Trees!" she squeaked as she ran to the closest one and plopped down in the damp leaves at its roots, letting go of Inuyasha half way there. It must have rained recently...  
  
She threw herself back into the fallen foliage and drew in another deep breath as she looked up through the bare branches at the blue sky once again. Wait... it was actually looking kinda grayish... and what was that? Oh! A could!  
  
Inuyasha watched her peculiarly as she laid there in the leaves with her arms spread beside her. She was a strange girl...seemingly a little bit different from all the village girls he'd seen as he'd traveled. She wasn't afraid of him like they were...he really wondered why he didn't frighten her like he did them.  
  
He kept his inquisitive eyes on her as she took a deep breath and started up at the sky. She looked so peaceful, and almost...relieved.  
  
"What's that scent in the air...?" he wondered as he took another sniff "...a storm, huh? We shouldn't stick around then..." "Hey!" he called to his companion "We need to get moving." He told her as he walked over to her still form amidst the leaves.  
  
"So soon...?" she whined "But we just got out... I wanted to rest for a bit." She pleaded with a frown.  
  
"Nope" He said firmly "There's a storm coming."  
  
"C'mon Inuyasha... I'm really tired...we have a little bit of time, don't we? And why do you want to go so soon, you idiot?! You're gonna drop dead from pain!"  
  
"I'll be fine" he grunted and folded his arms in front of him. "Now let's go!"  
  
Kagome sighed to herself; and again, it wasn't worth arguing with him. She'd just let him have his way. "Fine." She complied grudgingly as she got to her feet and took hold of his arm. Only then did she notice how badly her dress was ripped... "Inuyasha...!!" she began wrathfully "You - are - a - pervert!!!" she roared, scaring a few birds from their nests as she hastily pulled the upper left side of her dress up to where it belonged, tying it with a piece of material from the back.  
  
Inuyasha flared his eyes open and yelled back "What the hell was that for!?! I have really sensitive ears, you know!!"  
  
"For not telling me that my dress was like that!!" and infuriated Kagome shouted back.  
  
"It wasn't my fault! And who says I was looking anyway?! It's not like you're anything special to look at in the first place!!"  
  
"You jerk!" she screeched "You're so rude!!"  
  
"I - don't - care!" he spat back at her as the thunder started to rumble over the clouded sky. "I don't care about you or your stupid dress!"  
  
"Well I don't care about you either!!"  
  
"Then why don't you just leave!?" he threw his arms up in the air, causing her to stumble a little as he felt a rain drop hit his cheek.  
  
"M-Maybe I will!"  
  
"Good!"  
  
"Fine!" she cried furiously as the rain sprinkled lightly down on her.  
  
They stood there and looked fiercely at each other as the rain began to pour on then, soaking them from head to toe. Kagome was the first to move "G-Goodbye!" she hollered her parting statement and stomped off to follow the trodden path that started from their exit.  
  
"Good riddance!" he shouted after her as he jumped into a nearby tree and settled himself under the branches. "Stupid girl..." he grumbled.  
  
"Dumb boy..." Kagome growled as she trudged along the muddy path in the heavy rain. Her ribs were bothering her again, but she wasn't going to let him see that. Once she was out of sight she might rest for a minute, but definitely not until then. She was actually thinking about skipping the rest altogether and looking for a town to stay in... That might be a better alternative. And since she was a princess, they'd help her out.  
  
So she went about her not-so-merry way for quite a while. The road didn't turn much; for the most part it was straight, so it wasn't the most exciting little escapade. Not to mention the rain bucketing on her head...she must have looked like a wreck.  
  
Kagome let out a distressed sigh and shook her head. She really shouldn't have been so stubborn and rude to Inuyasha... he had the right to be grouchy; he was probably in a lot of pain. It would have been nicer to have had him to lean on right then instead of walking all alone. He really wasn't bad company when you were around him for a while; he was just a little jagged around the edges.  
  
Another thing that bothered her was what bad terms they'd gotten off on. Their parting words had been a very bitter 'Goodbye!' and 'Good riddance!'. Yep, they definitely could have gotten off on better terms.  
  
She stopped and looked back, questioning herself for a minute. "Should I go back...? Maybe I should apologize to him..." she could...  
  
But no. Kagome turned forward and resumed her trudging. Her pride had gotten the better of her.  
  
She let her head fall lazily down as her pace slowed a bit. "How much longer...?" she bellyached to no one but herself. This road was getting tiresome...  
  
"Princess?!"  
  
Said girl's head shot up with hope. "A voice!"  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha, who happened to be very wet, sat somberly in his tree and pondered his decisions of that day.  
  
"Was I right to tell her to go...? The damage to her rib cage was nothing to laugh about... And what if she doesn't get to the town?" he wondered. Maybe after he rested for a while he could make sure she hadn't gotten eaten by wolves or something...?  
  
Then again maybe not; she seemed resourceful enough to survive on her own. Even if a wolf attacked her, she'd probably bite it right back. And apparently, she didn't need his help at all, because she could care less about him, and he could care less about her. She didn't matter anyway, did she?  
  
Yeah...that was right. The only reason that he'd saved her back there was because she was a crying little girl. Nothing special about her...right?  
  
Right.  
  
Ahh...a nap sounded good right about now; he was tired. Plus, if he slept for a bit, he'd be free of any and every thought. Thinking was rather tiring these days. His wounds might heal a little quicker too...  
  
'Any and every thought? Is it just me, or are you implying that you're trying not to feel guilty for not checking up on her?'  
  
"Humph" he grunted "Who, Kagome? Guilty for what? It was her fault for walking away, not mine."  
  
'It was your fault for yelling at her though. Do you really think she would have walked away if you wouldn't have yelled back at her?'  
  
"Well, she was the one that made a big deal out of it in the first place, not me!"  
  
'You know what?'  
  
"What?"  
  
'You're a jerk.'  
  
"Didn't need to hear that from you!" Wait a second...from whom? Who was that voice anyway...?  
  
No matter! Now time for that nap...  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Princess dear? Is that you!?" The older voice queried and took a step towards her.  
  
"Miss Kaede!" Kagome called as she ran to her friend.  
  
"You've escaped! Oh however did you do it, child?" Kaede inquired eagerly as she bowed quickly to her.  
  
"Inuyasha helped me!" she piped with a smile "We got out...together..." Kagome sighed. She'd just heard her own words; 'Inuyasha helped me!'. The same Inuyasha she'd finished screaming at half hour or so ago. And once again...  
  
Here came the guilt.  
  
"Inuyasha?" Kaede echoed.  
  
"Mm hm" Kagome nodded slowly "You know...the hanyou boy they were trying to catch."  
  
"Oh Kagome dear!" the older woman gasped "Did he hurt you at all? Where is he now, child? And...this means he's free now!"  
  
"N-no Kaede, he didn't hurt me." She answered, trying to keep up with all the questions "I don't know where he is. And yes...he's free now."  
  
"This is very bad..." Kaede mused "Having that dangerous boy free and able to do as he pleases is not a good thing for the villages..."  
  
Kagome frowned at that. "What do you mean? Inuyasha isn't evil or anything, he just has a bit of a temper. And I wouldn't really call him dangerous." With the exception with when he'd killed all those men earlier that day...  
  
"Of course he's dangerous, princess dear!" she exclaimed. "He's a terrible-"  
  
"No he isn't!" Kagome cried out "If it weren't for him I might be dead right now! He saved me! Inuyasha isn't cruel or evil, he couldn't be!"  
  
They stood there for a minute, and Kagome finally realized how bad-mannered and childish she was acting. "I-I'm terribly sorry Miss Kaede, my behavior was awful." She apologized and bowed. Then she noticed something else...it had stopped raining.  
  
"Kagome dear," she started with a soft smile. "Why don't you come with me. I'll give you some clean clothes and we'll have something to eat."  
  
She returned her smile and they walked down the mud path together as Kagome told of her escape.  
  
A/N - I know... kind of a boring ending, and I took ages to get this chapter up. EIGHT days!!! ::falls over dead:: I'm really sorry. ^ ^;; I tried to finish it quicker, but I had a busy week.... (I know, excuses excuses, huh? ^_^;) I'm pretty sure I made it the normal length... so yea. I'll really try to keep my updates under a week. ^ ^; ja!  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	7. Midnight Memories

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha. I don't claim to own Inuyasha. I never will claim to own Inuyasha. So there! ^_^  
  
A/N - Alrighty! Here's the scoop. Before you decide to throw tomatoes at me for taking like years to update, I have an excuse! (And a lovely little compensation to go with it! ^-^) *Takes a deep breath* I've been super super busy with homework and my grandpa and all sorts of stuff, so I've have like no time to get on the computer, and extremely limited time to write. We've been doing a lot of driving around...so I write in the car and such, but I don't write real fast at all. ^ ^;; But! You're gonna love the compensation! ^-^ Guesses, anyone? (Oh for goodness sakes, I'll just tell you...) I've written and posted two chapters for you!! And I've already gotten a little bit done on chapter 9! Happy? ^_^; Oh! One more thing; have I mentioned Inuyasha's age? (I'm talking about in my fan fic, not his real age. ^ ^;) I know I said that Kagome's 16...but I don't think I ever said how old Inuyasha is. So in case you were wondering, he's 18. ^_^ Why 18 and not 17? Because I didn't think it was appropriate for him to have been in love with Kikyo when he was only 16 years old. Well anyway...enjoy! ^_-  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Midnight Memories  
  
Kagome sipped another spoonful of soup as she sat in front of the warm fire in Kaede's hut and finished her account of the happenings of the past few days. "...And that's when you found me on the road." She ended with a weak smile.  
  
"Goodness..." Kaede breathed as she finished bandaging up her companion "You have been through a lot dear. I can imagine that you're exhausted." she smiled gently at her "Would you like to be off to bed now?"  
  
"...Do you think you could tell me how you escaped first?" Kagome requested half eagerly as she wrapped a finger in the cloth of the dress Kaede had given her. It was plain...but it was nice. Besides, she would have really stood out if she were to walk into town with a used-to-be beautiful dress, tattered and muddied and ripped, with a few blood stains here and there. Yep, the she would have fit right in with that.  
  
"Oh, I'd forgotten about it...but yes child, I can tell you." She replied with the same, kind smile; though she seemed a bit saddened... "Now firstly, prior to when you met me, I had been in that same prison cell for only several days before you were brought into the next cell. And from when I was brought in, to when I removed the brick from the wall, I had been working on a spell."  
  
"A spell...?" Kagome wondered aloud, then suddenly an intrigued expression crossed her face "Then that must mean you're a priestess!" she gasped.  
  
Kaede smiled "Yes, princess dear, I am a priestess."  
  
"But..." that wasn't right. This woman couldn't be that Kaede...! "Only women from a royal bloodline can be priestesses." She stated "So Kaede, does that mean that you're..."  
  
"You're thoughts are correct." She affirmed the younger girl "I was once...princess Kaede of the eastern Kingdom." (Wahahaha! Surprise, anyone? ^-^ ::stares at readers:: come on... somebody? ::readers stare back:: ¬_¬ fine then. But anyway, I wanted to get things straight, just incase anybody forgot about who rules over which Kingdom! At the present time, Naraku -as well as Kagura and Kanna- rule over two kingdoms; the north and the east. Kagome's mom is queen over the west kingdom, and I'm not gonna tell you who the ruler of the southern kingdom is! ::sticks tongue out:: you'll just have to wait! ^-^ Guesses anyone?)  
  
Kagome's eyes widened a bit as her jaw slipped a little from its place. That couldn't be right...!! She had heard about the ruckus in the eastern Kingdom about a year ago, but she hadn't been filled in on a lot of details.  
  
She knew the bare facts...like how the King had caught a fatal disease and died a little over a week after, and how his elder daughter Kikyo had become queen, only to commit suicide within two weeks of her reign. Then lord Naraku of the northern kingdom had taken over the eastern lands in their weakened state, and young princess Kaede had fled from the castle. She hadn't heard anything else about the whole situation...but what she did know for a fact was that princess Kaede had been around Souta's age through the incident. She was not a sixty some year old woman.  
  
But then...on what grounds did this woman claim to be the young princess and priestess Kaede?  
  
"I don't understand, Miss Kaede." Kagome furrowed her brow "It isn't possible for you to be princess Kaede; she was a young girl."  
  
She let out a labored sigh "You know of the incident last year, correct?"  
  
Kagome nodded meekly.  
  
"...After I had fled from the castle, I went into this very village." she continued as she ladled Kagome another bowl of soup "I wanted to be entirely away from my kingdom, but I later found out that I was in the northern kingdom, which was also ruled by Naraku. The few people I associated with in this village welcomed me gladly, even though I was no longer a princess of the eastern lands. I had stayed with an older couple for a bit over a week, but on the tenth night a curse was cast on me in my sleep." Kaede handed Kagome her bowl and sat back down "It was a curse of old age." She sighed "That's why I look the way I do now."  
  
"So...you really are still a ten year old girl?" Kagome questioned, trying to straighten her brain out.  
  
Kaede shook her head expressively "No, it's not just in my appearance; I have literally advanced around fifty-five years in my life."  
  
"Wow..." she breathed "I didn't know that a spell like that existed..."  
  
"But about the spell I had been working on," Kaede resumed "Since almost the entirety of my strength was gone, I had very small amount of it to work with. That had not really mattered though, because the spell I was creating was a minuscule one. It consisted of merely weakening a small section of the wall and cracking the plaster around the edges of a certain brick or space in it. It was quite simple, actually."  
  
"Is that when you knocked the brick out?"  
  
"Yes dear, that was it." Kaede nodded "Then later on, when I was removed from that cell, they were planning on keeping me in one of the more local prisons, but at the last minute there was an order from lord Naraku to set me free."  
  
"Just like that?" Kagome frowned and tilted her head. It really surprised her that they'd be so straightforward about it...  
  
"I still don't know why he did so to this day." She shrugged. "The order was simply to set me free. But that's about all of the story there is to tell..."  
  
"So off to bed, huh?" Kagome smiled as she ended for her.  
  
She padded her way across the wooden floorboards and followed Kaede to a small room in the back of the hut "You can sleep in here, child." She said with a quiet grin. "There's a window in the corner if you'd like a little bit of fresh air." They exchanged a bows and Kaede left the room, shutting the door silently behind her and leaving Kagome to herself.  
  
Wasn't something she wanted right then. Because if she was left to herself, she'd have time to think; and guess who would come to mind first?  
  
She still felt like she needed to apologize to him...it was partly her fault. He wasn't in the best of shape either; what if he hadn't gotten any medical attention yet? Plus, she hadn't thanked him for saving her life!! That was so selfish of her...  
  
And if she knew Inuyasha, she knew he was not going to be the first to apologize. Nope, she'd have to do it. But how would she find him? He was probably miles away by now...  
  
Well...those matters could wait; she really needed some sleep first.  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha lay in the tree, the floodgates of heaven still open, as he glared at the sky through the mesh of bare branches.  
  
He'd wanted to rest for a while; you know - nap, have a siesta, snooze, check for holes in his eyelids - that kind of thing. Just for a few hours of the night he'd wanted to sleep; to take a break from everything. But did that happen?  
  
Nope. He hadn't caught a wink.  
  
Why? He wasn't exactly sure...perhaps it was because of the food they fed him in there? He hadn't gotten to finish it anyway...  
  
The rain, maybe? Actually, he was doubtful of that...he'd fallen asleep in the rain before, and it didn't really bother him.  
  
He sniffed the air lightly, but afterwards he'd wished he hadn't. The scent on his hands... he'd done an okay job of ignoring it for a while... but it was starting to bother him again. The blood scent...all those men's blood. He'd gotten his own claws covered in it, and it was haunting him.  
  
So he hopped out of the tree and trudged his way to a nearby creek. He had to try and get that horrid smell off of him...  
  
The creek water was a kind of icy cold...rather uncomfortable, in his opinion. He waded in quickly anyway, and furiously whipped his hands under the rain-rippled water. Standing there as minutes passed, he repeated the process with growing restlessness.  
  
But the odor wouldn't go away.  
  
He couldn't get it off of his hands...it just wouldn't be removed. There really wasn't anything else he could do about it but wait for it to fade away; which would, most likely, take a while. He didn't want to have to sit with it for so long...he'd never killed anyone before, and losing himself like that and slaughtering that many men was a little overwhelming.  
  
As a result, he just attempted to ignore it some more and stomped back to his tree.  
  
He sighed and repositioned himself again - for the twentieth time. For some reason or another, he kept getting the tiniest little hunch that the reason he couldn't sleep was because of his guilt. Personally, he thought it was quite unfair... What had he done to make his conscience hate him so much? He'd killed those men... and even though he knew that was most likely a great percentage of the emotional burden he was bearing, he knew that wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. She was what he was feeling guilty about, and it was upsetting him. He'd already convinced himself that it wasn't his fault, because it wasn't! It was all her fault for blowing up at him, and no one could tell him different.  
  
And that wasn't the only thing he'd decided.  
  
In the past, he had already made up his mind about this one; he wasn't going to associate with any women. Wasn't gonna stay with them, take charity from them, trust them, be friends with them, and above all; fall in love with them.  
  
But...he'd already failed with that once, hadn't he? He'd let himself fall in love...  
  
...with Kikyo.  
  
Inuyasha shook his head violently; he wasn't going to dwell on the past, and he wasn't going to let it repeat itself with anyone - ever! It would only end in pain...  
  
It had really upset him when the Kagome girl had kept calling him by his name and trying to be nice to him despite how callously he'd acted towards her. She'd blown up at him once or twice...but she hadn't completely loathed his existence - or at least he hadn't though she did. All the other people he'd encountered had hated him...either because of his behavior, or because of who he was. Then again, everyone detested and despised him...  
  
Actually, that wasn't entirely true; not everyone. There had been a couple of people...his mother for one, hadn't hated him at all; she'd loved him. And then there was Kikyo... but with the exception of the two of them, there wasn't anyone who cared. Besides...he didn't want anyone to care anymore. And he wasn't going to care either.  
  
But he'd slipped a little with Kagome, and it angered him now. He'd let himself watch her and think about her. She would often make him think of Kikyo too...she didn't act like her at all; nope, that wasn't their similarity. But Kagome...she looked just like Kikyo.  
  
It wasn't something he'd noticed right away...but when he'd smashed down the wall, and saved her from those idiots, he'd seen the resemblance. It was really creepy for him...it was almost like Kikyo had came back; but she hadn't.  
  
There was that time in the hall, earlier that day, when he'd been carrying Kagome and she'd offered to walk by herself and use him as a 'walking stick'. It had reminded him of that time last year...  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
Inuyasha's ears straightened; something was wrong...he could feel it. He was on his way to meet Kikyo, like he usually did in the afternoon, but he could sense that she was in a bit of trouble... Could it have been a youkai? If it was, it must have been a really powerful one to actually make Kikyo put up a fight.  
  
He bolted off in the direction she was in, and found her in the forest aiming her arrow at a slouching, pink haired demon. (A/N - Sound familiar? It's Jeromaru! [sp?] Ha ha ha ha! Don't worry; he isn't in for a long stay. ^_^ And actually...I'm not going to bring Kageromaru [sp?] out, because then...idk, I just don't want to! I didn't like him... ::glares at a picture of Kageromaru:: he's icky. I'm not saying I liked Jeromaru, he was gross too. And I'm making him just a tidbit easier to defeat. ^ ^; just a bit! Okay, maybe a little more that a bit...) Without saying a word of warning, he ran up to it and swung his claws. "Sankontetsou!" But as the dust cleared, he saw that the demon was gone. "What?"  
  
"Nangh...!" Inuyasha cried was smacked forcefully onto the ground from behind. "What the hell!?" He stood up and spun around, but all he found was one of Kikyo's arrows. He looked over at her quickly as he asked her where the demon had gone. (A/N - And just FYI, Kikyo didn't shoot the arrow at Inuyasha, she shot it at Jeromaru. V_V)  
  
"There!" she answered as she readied another arrow and pointed it towards a patch of bushes near her where the creature resided.  
  
Inuyasha sped to the opposite side of the shrubs that Kikyo was on, and ran a few feet back. The second she fired the arrow and the demon jumped out of the bushes, he dashed up next to it. "Sankontetsou!" he shouted with a second swipe of his claws, crushing it.  
  
He turned to Kikyo with a frown "You okay? You should have just shouted for me, you know."  
  
"I know." She replied as she smiled "Thank you."  
  
"Whatever..." he grumbled as he looked down at the ground. Why did he still have the cold edge about him, even around Kikyo? She knew him; understood him. She could see right through his bad attitude, and interpret his 'whatever' as a 'you're welcome'. So why did he still answer her 'thank you' with a 'whatever'? "Did you get hurt?" he asked ineptly.  
  
"Just a little..." she replied slowly "It's nothing incurable. My knee just twisted a bit..."  
  
Inuyasha leaned back against the tree behind him, still looking at the forest floor. The very least he could do for her right now was to be courteous to her... "...I'll carry you back if you want me to."  
  
Kikyo pursed her lips and shook her head "No...you don't need to do that. Just leaning on your arm would be fine."  
  
He shrugged and walked over next to her, pushing his arm towards her. "I'll bring you straight home" he said as he turned his gaze towards hers "There's someone there who can fix up you leg, right?"  
  
She nodded, still looking at him as she took hold of his arm.  
  
Inuyasha didn't like the pressure he felt when he just looked at her like that, and she just looked back; he was sure she felt that way to. So he was the first one to end the suspense. "It's not far." He stated as he looked forward and broke the spell they seemed to be in. "We'll be there in no time."  
  
Kikyo nodded again as she looked forward as well. But as they started to walk, she realized that her injury was a bit worse than she had predicted. She had to use a lot of her strength just to keep herself standing.  
  
He swept a side glance at Kikyo as she struggled to walk. It looked like her injury wasn't as diminutive as she thought it was. And since he disliked seeing her in pain, he quickly slipped his arm out from hers, letting her fall backward a little, then lifted her up and soared off at a much quicker pace.  
  
She nearly laughed as she looked up at him as they flew through the air. "He knew I couldn't have lasted for much longer, didn't he? I didn't even need to say anything...and he understands me perfectly."  
  
Once they arrived near the castle grounds, Inuyasha set Kikyo down near the border. "I can leave you here, right?"  
  
"All I have to do is yell and someone will come running." Kikyo said as she laughed lightly.  
  
"So..." Inuyasha looked down at his feet. "Will you be okay by tomorrow?"  
  
She copied his action as she answered him quietly "I don't know...it's possible."  
  
He cleared his throat and gazed up at her (Actually, down...she's sitting on the grass...) "Do you want me to come by tomorrow? I can get up to your window without the guards seeing..."  
  
She nodded and briefly looked up (She really is looking up...) "Thank you, Inuyasha."  
  
And with that, he left.  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
The situation hadn't been exactly the same...but it had been similar. It was funny...the more he thought about it, the more he saw how amazingly identical they were. Kagome was a royal servant, Kikyo was a princess. Kagome tried to be nice to him, Kikyo tried -and succeeded- in being nice to him. Not to mention they were nearly identical.  
  
But then...all the same, they were unbelievably different from each other. Kagome was really loud, Kikyo was very quiet. Kagome got angered easily, Kikyo never got angry. And Kikyo was much more mannerly and intelligent than her mirror image, Kagome.  
  
He'd broken a few of his own rules with Kagome as well. He'd accompanied her for a little while, he'd let her be kind to him and he hadn't always refused, and he'd gotten more or less close to being friends with her. That had been bad; he'd let her get to close...  
  
It didn't really matter though; he doubted he'd ever see her again...  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Oof...da..." A very tired Kagome groaned. She'd been laying there for hours, desperately trying to float herself off into dream land. Did she ever get there?  
  
Take a wild guess.  
  
She sighed and walked over to the wooden shutter near the corner of the small room. That fresh air Kaede had mentioned sounded good right about now. It was a little stuffy in there...  
  
She pushed the window opened and smiled as the cool breeze gently lifted some of her hair off of her shoulders. "It's still raining...?" she whispered. Even thought the sky was clouded, there was still a small space in them where the moon could be seen. There was as pretty glow around it, too...  
  
"I wonder..." she thought as she crossed her arms on the small windowsill, placing her hands on her shoulders with her chin on her arms. "How am I going to find Inuyasha tomorrow...? I really don't have any idea as to where he is..." Yeah...it was going to be a difficult task.  
  
Inuyasha was a complete mystery to her. Why was he always so mean? Quite often when she'd try and get along with him, he'd ignored her or shouted at her. And what had happened when his eyes turned red? His conscience must have been bothering him right then...  
  
It made her feel bad, because it was her fault. If she hadn't gotten into trouble in the first place, Inuyasha would have gotten hurt so bad, and he wouldn't have such a horribly guilty conscience. And he'd bothered to carry her and let her lean on him all that time, with all his injuries. He wasn't a bad guy...he was just kind of...well; hard-hearted I guess you could say. But...why?  
  
In some very vague way, Inuyasha kind of reminded her of her father...She had no idea why; they were complete opposites. Her dad had always been kind and gentle, always laughing and playing with her when she was little. And even though her memories of him were limited, she still loved him...  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
"Daddy, daddy!" Kagome piped as she ran up to her father "Is it true?! Is it true?! Is mommy really gonna have a baby?! Does that mean I get a new baby brother or sister?! If he's a boy what are you gonna name him?! And what are you gonna call her if she's a girl?!"  
  
"Whoa whoa..." Mr. Higurashi laughed "Slow down, sugar-puff. Not so many questions at once! Now..." he began as he leaned down to her level "Firstly; yes. Secondly; yes. Thirdly; yes -and it should be here in four months-. Fourthly; yes. Fifthly; Souta. Sixthly; Buyo."  
  
Kagome wrinkled her nose "Buyo, daddy? That's a silly name for a little girl! It sounds like a boy's name..."  
  
"Hmm..." he hummed as he rubbed his chin with his forefingers "Maybe you're right. Okay then, how about we name the new cat Buyo instead?"  
  
"Well that's a better id- A kitty?!!" she squeaked as she jumped in the air. Wow! Lots of good things were happening! "We're getting a kitty, too?!"  
  
He laughed again as he patted her head "Yes, yes, we're going to get a kitty."  
  
"Oh thank you, daddy!!" she squealed and dove into his arms. "I promise I'll take good care of him!"  
  
"Well you better!" he smiled. But all too soon, his dazzling smile turned into a mellow one. "But that's not the only thing I want you to take care of." He told her as he set her down and put his hands on her shoulders. "Daddy has to leave for a while...and I need you to take care of your mother while I'm gone."  
  
"How long are you going to be gone?" she frowned. Okay...maybe not everything that was happening was good... "Will you be here when the baby comes?"  
  
"Yes, I think so..." he pressed his lips together thoughtfully.  
  
"Well...where are you going?" she asked and tilted her head.  
  
"I have to go to a something called a 'war'."  
  
"What do you have to do at the war?"  
  
"I have to fight for our home."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You know...our castle, the villages and towns and all the people that live in them." he stretched his arms out expressively and gave her a half-grin "Everybody!"  
  
Kagome blinked in amazement "You're gonna fight for everybody all by yourself?"  
  
"No no..." he chuckled "I couldn't do it all myself. There are lots of people coming to help me. You see, we all come together and fight; we don't do it by ourselves, sugar-puff. We couldn't."  
  
"Ooh...I think I get it now." Of course she didn't...but she had to keep daddy happy, right?  
  
"Good." He nodded "Now, I'll be leaving in about a week, and I'll be pretty busy until then...so why don't we go and play hide and seek while we have the chance?"  
  
She nodded cheerfully and tagged after her father down the stairs.  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
Kagome sighed to herself; that had been the last time...  
  
Something clicked in her head right then. Did Inuyasha have a family? She had Souta and her mother and her grandpa. Even Buyo was like part of her family...  
  
So...who did Inuyasha have?  
  
According to what she'd heard from Kaede, he lived on his own and he would steal from villages and towns. She hadn't thought he was a thief when they'd brought him in... in fact, she hadn't know much about him at all. Just that he was a hanyou, and he had been causing some sort of trouble. But she still didn't know anything about his family.  
  
Had they died, maybe? That could have been the reason he often seemed cold and closed up. He didn't like to say what he was thinking either...  
  
Now she felt really bad... Inuyasha was all alone, with no family or friends, and he just gotten a big bruise to himself emotionally as well as physically. And - as she'd said before - the latter were her fault. She had to find him, then she'd have to apologize to him, then she'd have to thank him for saving her and helping her.  
  
Now there was a tricky 'to do' list.  
  
Kagome shrugged and shut the window, crawling under the blanket Kaede had left for her. She didn't want to get too warm...she just liked sleeping under a blanket.  
  
She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side as she thought silently to herself "Will I ever get back home? I don't know how I would get there...but there must be some way, or some one, that could get me on the correct path, right?" Kagome wandered off to a dreamless sleep with one last thought "Maybe...Inuyasha?"  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Morning already...?" Inuyasha mumbled as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. He stretched his arms out tiredly and looked down at his middle as he put one hand to it. "Yep, completely closed up now." He wasn't fully healed...the wound had just sealed up on the outside, leaving no trace or scar. But wait...when had he fallen asleep anyway?  
  
With a yawn, he sat up from his perch and took a look at his surroundings. It had to have stopped raining only an hour or so ago, because the sun was up and shining and puddles were still lingering on the damp grass.  
  
He hopped down from the tree nimbly "Now," he started as he brushed a stray leaf off his sleeve "For breakfast!" Inuyasha shot up into the air and headed towards the nearest village. He didn't know which village it was...but he was sure he was heading towards one; he could smell it. But as he neared the village, his nose caught another scent...  
  
It was Kagome's.  
  
"Shit..." he cursed under his breath as he landed on a stray log. "I might run into her if I go to this one..."  
  
But if he didn't go to this village, he'd have to travel quite a ways to get to the next one; it was pretty far away ...the scent was very faint. And his stomach was practically barking at him; it had given up growling quite a while ago. He hadn't gotten to finish his meal yesterday afternoon because he'd gotten in an argument with a certain girl...  
  
All the same, if he went to the village that was only about a half a mile away from him, he'd see her. That wasn't something that he wanted to happen...  
  
Inuyasha sighed loudly as his stomach started barking at him again.  
  
That was it. His hunger had just decided for him. He could dodge Kagome... he was stealthy enough!  
  
So he jumped off once again, in the direction of the village.  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Kagome." Kaede roused her "Would you like something to eat?"  
  
She blinked herself awake and sat up wearily "Yes...thank you...just an apple please." She requested.  
  
Kagome fumbled to her feet slowly and shuffled after Kaede into the main room of the hut, accepting the large apple she was given readily. "Are you sure you wouldn't like anything else, dear?" Kaede queried. She shook her head in response and chewed her apple in the most mannerly way she could manage.  
  
They ate in a comfortable silence, and when they finished, Kagome decided to ask Kaede's opinion on looking for Inuyasha. "Miss Kaede...I want to go find Inuyasha." Hey, may as well get straight to the point! "...But I wouldn't really know where to find him."  
  
Kaede smiled; she understood. "I know someone who would be able to help you." She said simply. "But first...do you think you could do me a small favor?"  
  
"Sure"  
  
"Could you run down to the village market and get me a bushel of apples, please?"  
  
"I can do that." She smiled as she received the money Kaede handed her.  
  
"The markets are at the other end of the village... but if you go right once exiting the hut, and walk straight to then end of the road and turn right again, then turn left once you reach the blacksmith shop, you should find them."  
  
"Okay... I'll be back soon!" she chirped and left the hut briskly.  
  
Kagome jogged up the dirt road and looked on either side of her at all the houses and huts she passed. This town was a lot bigger than she though it was...  
  
A/N - You know, there was no point whatsoever to having a cliffy right there, because I typed up another chapter anyway! So you're just gonna know what happened right away...that was futile. *sigh* Anyway, does anybody but me think those flashbacks get a little annoying after a while...? And sorry to anyone who hates Kikyo. ^ ^; I know you all are going to want to strangle me for this...but I don't hate her at all. Actually...I kind of like Kikyo; in some, vague sense. ^ ^;;;; It wasn't her fault that that whole mess with her and Inuyasha happened...I can't blame her for that. And though I was super upset when she kissed Inuyasha and tried to kill Kagome, I don't hate her. ^ ^; Maybe God just gifted me with a lot of compassion for bad characters...? ^ ^; idk... I mean, I don't hate Nakago from Fushigi Yugi. x_x is that weird or what? But with Kikyo and such, I'm NOT saying I'd rather have Kikyo and Inuyasha be the main couple of 'Inuyasha', because I wouldn't want that. Kagome and Inuyasha forever!!! XD I love them as a couple. ^-^ They fit so perfectly together, don't you think? Heh heh... ^_^  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	8. Sit!

Disclaimer - I don't own Inuyasha, I don't claim to own Inuyasha, blah blah blah... Okay, I officially don't claim to own Inuyasha for the rest of this fan fiction, because I don't want to write this anymore! Erp.  
  
A/N - Yeah...that disclaimer was starting to bug me. ¬_¬ And did I mention that you don't need to worry about me stopping this completely? ^ ^ I wouldn't do that. *grin* I kinda like this story...heh heh. And plus, I wouldn't want to let you guys down! And again, I apologize for making you wait so long... ^ ^;;; I'm really sorry!! ^_^ So yeah...Enjoy chapter 8!  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 8  
  
Sit!  
  
Once reaching the end of the road, she turned right like Kaede had said and slowed her pace to a walk. There seemed to be more people around here... maybe she was getting closer?  
  
She watched a group of young children playing ball as she walked, but slowed to a stop as she noticed something rather heartrending.  
  
There was a young, white-haired girl (A/N - No no... not long white hair, short and cute. ^-^ Not that Inuyasha wasn't the most adorable little kid on the planet...) amidst the group of five and six year olds that was getting left out. Every time she'd try to join into the game, the group would move; leaving the girl by herself. And whenever she'd call for the ball to be passed to her, she'd be avoided or shunned by the rest of them. Finally, they gave up on the game and left the area completely; leaving the girl to herself as well.  
  
Kagome watched her with concern as she sat herself down on the ground and buried her head in her arms, tiny sobs racking her small frame. She walked towards her, ignoring all the calls of 'Don't bother with her!' and 'That's just the orphan girl.' until she was only a few feet away, and then froze at what she heard.  
  
"...Orphan...?" the girl echoed as she cried quietly. "...Is that why nobody loves me...?"  
  
Kagome couldn't move; how could they treat that little girl that way? Not caring about her at all, and leaving her all alone...just because she was an orphan?  
  
Then it hit her. That...that's what Inuyasha must have felt like; all alone, without anyone to care about him. Not a single friend in the whole world. That must have been why he was so calloused... why he was so mean.  
  
He was just...lonely.  
  
Now she understood. She was finally aware of why Inuyasha was so unkind and defensive. She finally got it. So then...all he needed...was a friend, right?  
  
She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the little girl and talked to her soothingly "It's alright... everything will be okay..."  
  
After she'd settled down a bit she turned her around and looked at her. "What's your name?"  
  
"H-hana..." she stuttered as he stared up at her. (A/N - It's pronounced with short a's... as in 'la la la'; like that. ^_^)  
  
"That's a pretty name." she smiled "It means flower, you know." (A/N - This was originally a little boy, and his name was Yukito; it means snow bunny! ^.^)  
  
"Really?" she beamed as Kagome wiped the tears off her face.  
  
"Mm hm." she nodded and stood up. "Well, Hana, do you want something to eat?"  
  
"N-no..." she answered quickly and shook her head.  
  
"Why not?" Kagome frowned as she kneeled down beside her again.  
  
"Because I don't have any money to pay for it..." Hana said as she looked at her feet.  
  
"Well I'll pay for it!" she scooped up the girl and pranced of to the end of the road, and once reaching the blacksmith shop, turned to her left.  
  
Hana lay in Kagome's arms, looking rather perplexed as she was carried into the market area. "Wait!" she cried. "I'm not supposed to go into the markets!"  
  
"What?" Kagome blinked as she stopped. Why wouldn't she be able to...?  
  
"The market owners told me that I'd be in trouble if I ever went in there again..." she said quietly as she ducked her head.  
  
"Nonsense!" she exclaimed as she flounced her way into the market, looking for any sign of an apple. "They'll let you go in there if I come with you!"  
  
"But what if I get in troub-"  
  
"Hey!" Kagome spun around at the sound of a woman's voice "That girl isn't allowed in this market! Why did you bring her in here?"  
  
"I wanted to get her something to eat." Kagome answered plainly "She was hungry, and I was planning on coming in here anyway."  
  
"Excuse me miss!" the woman huffed as she stomped towards her and grabbed her shoulder. "You can't overpower the laws of the town!"  
  
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I happen to be a prince-"Kagome stopped short as she stared up at the familiar figure nearby. "A...prince's hand servant!" she finished smoothly. That had been a close one...  
  
But how was she supposed to explain what she'd said to him?  
  
~~*~~  
  
"Damnit..." Inuyasha cursed. He hadn't been careful enough, and Kagome had seen him. Running off right in front of her would look a little suspicious...  
  
But hey, what did he care?  
  
He looked down at his stomach...which was now resorting to causing him pain instead of growling or barking at him. "Ugh..." he groaned; maybe he'd have to grab something to eat before he left... Kagome was causing quite a commotion down there, so it'd be a simple job. It just bothered him the way she was staring at him like he was supposed to be her knight-in-shining-armor as all the marketers came over and started shouting and snatching at her...  
  
And with the whole hand servant thing... she'd never said anything about being a prince's right hand man! He'd suspected that she was something higher than your average peasant; with her fancy dress and all. But he didn't think she worked directly with a royal family...  
  
Now the similarity between the two of them was bothering him even more. If Kagome had been any higher up on the ladder, she would have been a princess; just like Kikyo.  
  
Inuyasha growled as he turned his slightly angered gaze away from Kagome and to the nearest unmanned food cart. She'd gotten herself in trouble, now she could get herself out.  
  
But just before Inuyasha was about to hop down from his place on the blacksmith's roof, he stopped. That little girl she was holding...was that Hana? Could it really be the same Hana from last year?  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
"Leave her alone you jerks!" Inuyasha shouted as he slammed his fist into the tall man's stomach. Even though he was a little busy at the moment, he could spare a few minutes to help a kid.  
  
He threw a few more punches and kicks, knocking the few men present to the ground; he didn't want to kill them with his claws...so he'd just shut them up with his fists. "You better leave her alone from now on, you hear me?!" he barked down at them.  
  
He walked away semi-coolly as he looked up at the sky, determining which way he'd have to go to get back on track.  
  
"Th-thank you...!!" the small orphan's voice yelled after him from several yards back "Thank you for helping me, mister!"  
  
"Whatever..." he shrugged "The name's Inuyasha." He said as he turned to her with a smirk "Just take care of yourself, okay Hana?"  
  
She nodded timidly as she gazed up at him, a little stunned.  
  
Inuyasha faced forward, keeping the same expression on his face as he pranced off on his way. He was pleased he'd remembered her name when one of the townspeople had said it... that'd had given him a rather dramatic departure.  
  
Anyway, back to the task at hand!  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
He sighed heavily as he stared down at the little white haired girl in older girl's arms. She probably didn't know he was there...little Hana would be staring at him as well if she'd seen him. Now he knew how Kagome had gotten herself into that mess...she'd been trying to help Hana.  
  
Crap... now he'd feel really awful if he left both of them there...  
  
All the same, he hopped down from his perch; sneaking his way over to the large vegetable cart nearby. Oh! They even had some potatoes...  
  
"M-mister Inuyasha...!!"  
  
Inuyasha turned around slowly - vegetables in hand - at the sound of the familiar young voice. Oh damn... he inwardly kicked himself for not being a tidbit more cautious; now that Hana had seen him, she'd probably cry if he left...  
  
But she'd been crying before...and Kagome had helped her, hadn't she?  
  
He hadn't been paying attention to Hana's scent, so he hadn't noticed how it had been lightly mixed with the soft scent of her tears. And he'd also noted how Kagome's scent was on her; not to mention that it was streaked across her face. Sometimes he wondered why he was so sensitive to Kagome's scent...maybe it was just unique...?  
  
Grah!! He'd started to think about her again!  
  
Inuyasha quickly turned his attention back to Hana as she started talking to him. "Mister Inuyasha...is that you?" she asked quietly as she peered over at him. Great; now everybody was staring at him.  
  
So what should he do?  
  
He turned around promptly, not sparing Kagome a glance. "I gotta go, so I'll-"  
  
"Inuyasha!" Kagome called as she yanked her arms free from the grasp of the villagers and ran towards him; still holding Hana. "I was going to go look for you today! Didn't think you'd be easy to find...but umm..." she shuffled her feet in the dirt uneasily as she set the young child down next to her. "I wanted to apolo-"  
  
That was it. She'd said the first three syllables of a word he didn't want to hear her say, and one that he wasn't going to let her finish. Besides, he'd already decided that he wasn't going to associate with her. "Sod off, girl!" he interrupted coldly as he started walking again. "Why don't I just jump right out of here...?" he questioned himself. That would have been the quickest way...so why was he still walking?  
  
"What...?" Kagome whispered as she stood in his wake, staring at his back while she held onto Hana's hand. "What's wrong...?" she wondered. Had she really upset him that much? "Inuyasha, wait a minute!" she hollered after his retreating figure. "Hey! I said wait!" Why wasn't he stopping?  
  
Kagome dropped Hana's small hand and darted up to Inuyasha, seizing his forearm and shooting in front of him; making him drop a few of his precious potatoes in the process. "Inuyasha, you're not still mad at me, are you?" she asked anxiously. She wasn't about to let this guy just walk off; he needed her to be a friend to him.  
  
He clenched his teeth and wrenched his arm away from her. Did she really have to make this so difficult? "No, stupid, that's not it!! Now go away!" he barked and stomped his way forward again.  
  
"Hold up a minute!" she trudged after him and talked while she walked "If that's not it then what is it?"  
  
"Leave me alone!"  
  
Ugh!! He was so stubborn. "No! Answer the question first!"  
  
"You wouldn't understand...!" he growled as he glared at the moving air in front of him.  
  
"Well I might if you'd just tell me!!"  
  
Inuyasha halted abruptly, turning to face her with frustration "You - wouldn't - understand! Is that concept really so difficult to grasp!? You wouldn't understand - end of story. Now quit bugging me!" he whipped forward again and leapt off the ground.  
  
Kagome was mildly alarmed as she watched Inuyasha jump into the air. What was his problem? Was he really so desperate not to have any friends!? "Inuyasha!! Will you just stop running away!?"  
  
He landed smoothly on the roof of one of the larger huts and tried to spring off again, but his body didn't want to cooperate with him. The last few words she'd said were still echoing in his mind; 'quit running away'. He wasn't really running away, was he?  
  
He thought about it for a moment...and she was right. He was running away. But if he didn't keep running away from people, he'd get attached to somebody. And if he got attached to somebody, everything would just end in pain. Letting himself get close to someone else was a bad idea...That theory had proven itself correct with Kikyo, so why should he listen to naïve little Kagome? She was just a stupid little girl...she didn't understand anything. She didn't understand loneliness or pain...she'd never experienced any of that.  
  
Besides...people can't be trusted. Not even people like Kagome. They were all liars and cheaters...even if they seemed kind and friendly on the outside, they were all really the same at the core. For all he knew, Kagome could be working for Sesshomaru or something...  
  
Now there was a scary thought.  
  
"Sorry, I'm leav-"  
  
"Kagome!" she spun around (A/N - Lot of spinning lately, huh? ^ ^;) to see Kaede coming towards her from the market entrance. "Stop him, quickly! The first word you speak to him will be the binding spell!"  
  
Inuyasha and Kagome stared at the old woman with quite puzzled expressions. "What are you talking about...?" Kagome asked, clueless for the most part.  
  
"Just say something to him! Anything will stop him now!"  
  
She raised an eyebrow at the older woman, but shrugged and turned back to Inuyasha. Whatever she was talking about was worth a try... (A/N - I bet you know what's coming, don't you? ^_^) "...Sit?" Kagome watched with growing bewilderment as Inuyasha was dragged down off the roof, face first into the ground.  
  
After a few seconds, Inuyasha shot up out of the dirt. "What the hell did you do!?" he snarled as he shot them each some of his mass-produced glares.  
  
Kagome turned to Kaede helplessly "What did I just do?"  
  
Kaede ignored the raging hanyou as she spoke "I thought I had sensed something was wrong, so I decided to come down here and check if my senses served me right." She explained and walked towards Kagome. "When I saw the situation between the two of you, I looked for an opening that I could assist you in, Kagome."  
  
The younger miko girl grinned at that comment.  
  
"I had noticed that Inuyasha was wearing some prayer beads around his neck, and I took the opportunity to place a spell on them. It was a restraint spell, and I made you in control of it. So now, since you chose the word 'sit' as the activation word for it, whenever you say that word 'sit' the beads will pull him down to the ground. Do you understand?"  
  
She nodded in response as she glanced back over at Inuyasha. A very angry Inuyasha. He wasn't even shouting anymore, he was just shooting fierce glares at her and Kaede. No...he wasn't just angry, he was enraged beyond compare.  
  
"How dare you!! You put a damn spell on my necklace!! It was a gift from Kikyo!! You cursed it you old hag!!! Not to mention you just put that girl in control of it!! What am I, a fucking lap dog!?!" he roared as he sprinted over to Kaede.  
  
But before he could do anything drastic, Kagome stopped him. "Inuyasha, sit!" he crashed into the ground at her command, but instead of getting up, stayed there and weighed his situation. This really sucked. That old bitch had cursed the necklace Kikyo had given him as a present and put Kagome of all people, in charge of it. Now he'd have to listen to her every beck and call, and he wouldn't be able to get away from her.  
  
Inuyasha snapped his head up to face the sky, still lying in the same place where he fell, as he wailed his complaint. "What did I do to deserve this!?!" he stood up and turned to Kagome with frustration. "What do you want from me...?!" he growled.  
  
Kagome didn't speak. She'd hadn't heard anything after 'It was a gift from Kikyo!'; she'd zoned out. Kikyo...Inuyasha, he knew Kikyo. And it seemed like he had had some kind of an attachment to her...But what kind of relationship could he have had with her? Kaede had told her that Kikyo was a kind person...gentle and delicate. They were complete opposites. (A/N - Ha! That was such an insult to poor Inuyasha...) So how could Inuyasha be so fond of her that he'd break out like that?  
  
"How do you know my sister?" Kaede broke in quickly as she stepped forward. Apparently, she hadn't heard any more than Kagome had.  
  
Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her "What the shit do you mean, 'your sister'. Kikyo only had one sister, and she was only a little kid!"  
  
Kaede sighed and shook her head "I am her sister. It's a long story..."  
  
"So don't ask." Kagome said.  
  
He narrowed his eyes further "What's your name?"  
  
"Kaede."  
  
Kaede! That was ringing more than one bell... "Wait!" he whirled on Kagome "Is this the Kaede that got the brick out of the wall?! The one that started this whole mess?!"  
  
She nodded innocently and stared at him.  
  
He turned back to Kaede, frustration rising in him once again. "You! This is all your fault! If you hadn't opened up that space in the cell wall none of this would have happened!!"  
  
Kagome blinked at his abruptness "Inuyasha, I think you should calm down-"  
  
"I swear, if I could get my hands on you right now without getting a face full of dirt, I'd strangle you, you old hag!!"  
  
"Hey, I said to cool it-"  
  
"Once I figure out how to get the damn curse of my necklace, you're gonna get it!!"  
  
"Sit!!" he slammed into the dirt with another 'Nangh!' as Kagome stood there with her hands on her hips. She'd ask him about Kikyo and such some other time...right now, she had other business. "Hana," she started as she turned and smiled to the disorientated girl "C'mere for a second."  
  
She scampered over quickly, and the two of them walked past a cursing Inuyasha to Kaede. "Miss Kaede...do you think that Hana...could stay with you?" Kagome asked unhurriedly.  
  
Kaede laughed and squatted down in front of the young girl. "Of course she can, dear. Would you like to come stay with me, Hana?" The little girl nodded earnestly and, simple as that, the pair walked out of the market and down the road to Kaede's house.  
  
"Well..." Kagome blinked "I didn't expect that to be so easy- Eep! Inuyasha, what do you think you're doing?!" she squeaked as he picked her up and leaped out of the market; leaving the perplexed villagers to themselves.  
  
"Bringing you to a river." He answered nonchalantly.  
  
She frowned at him "To do what?!"  
  
"Drop you in it!" he barked.  
  
"You will not! I'll say 'the word' if you even try something like that you jerk!" she threatened and waved her finger at him.  
  
"That would be really stupid on your part, because I'm the only thing that's keeping you from falling! If I fall, you fall with me!" he scoffed in a 'duh!' tone of voice.  
  
"What's the point in dropping me in the river anyway?!" she said, exasperated.  
  
"To get rid of you! Why else?! If you're underwater, you can't scream that word at me, therefore I'll be able to get away from you!"  
  
"Are you saying you're going to try and drown me?!"  
  
"No!" he scowled at her. "I'll just drop you in a little river...you can swim, can't you? You won't drown." What did she think he was, Satan? He didn't want to hurt her; just get rid of her.  
  
She snorted as his inconsiderate attitude; what a jerk. But...she actually thought it kind of funny that he thought he could escape her like that. Just drop her in the river? Humph. All she had to do was say 'sit' right when he dropped her. There'd be no way for him to get around that. Plus...she was actually a very good swimmer; she wouldn't be surprised if she beat him shore!  
  
A smirk crept across her lips in a manner that annoyed Inuyasha. "What's she smiling about? I'm about to toss her in a river!" Speaking of...there it was! He copied her expression, only with a bit of a mocking flavor as he jumped above the river and released his hold on her, letting her fall smoothly down to the water. But, much to his displeasure, she'd decided to bring him down with her. Her 'Sit!!' echoed through the surrounding forest as they fell into the chilly waters.  
  
Kagome sprung back to the surface with quick intake of breath, and paddled her way through the freezing water to the browning grass along the shore. She clambered up quickly, getting her clean dress quite dirty and mud-covered in the process, and curled herself up in a ball on the shore. Damn...her bandage had gotten wet too...  
  
She rubbed her legs in an effort to warm them up as she stared at the surface of the water, waiting for Inuyasha to float himself up. What was taking him so long?  
  
Sure enough, after a minute or two of waiting, he popped up amidst the blue ripples on the water, coughing and sputtering as he paddled his way to shore.  
  
He crawled up onto the riverbank, glaring daggers at Kagome as he sat down next to her. "Do you know what just happened?" he asked.  
  
She shook her head and blinked back at him. "Besides us both falling into the river...? No..."  
  
Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as he stared at her "You see this?" he pointed to the prayer beads around his neck "It dragged me to the bottom of the river. But that isn't the bad part; while I was down there, it got itself stuck on a rock. I was trapped down there until I got the damn thing out. You know why?"  
  
Kagome shook her head again.  
  
"Because the old hag cursed them; she cursed them, then put you in charge of them. And because you used them against me, I almost drowned! Not to mention how freaking cold it is down there!"  
  
"Umm...." She looked up at him "...Sorry?" Kagome rattled herself out of her daze and shot back another reply. "Hey! I'm really sorry that you got pulled to the bottom of the river and all, but it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't dropped me in there in the first place!"  
  
"Well if you hadn't said 'sit'-"  
  
"Then you would have left!"  
  
"But that was the point!"  
  
"And the point in my saying 'sit' was to get you to stay- Oops!" she stared down at his sprawled form "Sorry, Inuyasha! I really didn't mean that one..."  
  
He hauled himself back into a sitting position and snapped one of his 'what's your problem?!' looks at her. "Well then watch what you say!" he seethed.  
  
"Okay, okay!" she held her hands up "I'll be a bit more careful next time!"  
  
"Whatever..." he grumbled as he stood up. "Are you gonna let me leave yet or do I have to throw you in the river again?"  
  
"Leave?" she frowned and looked down at her feet "That reminds me...I have a question-"  
  
"And whatever it is, the answer is no." he cut her short rudely.  
  
"-for you. I wanted to know if you could help me...help me get home." She looked back up at him.  
  
"Yeah - the answer is definitely no."  
  
"But why?!"  
  
"Because I have no reason to help a girl like you!" he stated and turned on his heel, walking away from her.  
  
"Well what if I promised you a lot of gold and jewels when we get back?" she reasoned and ran up next to him.  
  
He paused for a minute and thought over her new proposition. Money wasn't something he had a whole lot of... maybe he should help her? But no...if he went with her, he might get 'attached'. He didn't want that to happen again...but he really needed this money. "How much is a lot?" he inquired as he turned back to her.  
  
Kagome grinned to herself; she'd found his weakness. "A lot more than you'd make in a year by stealing."  
  
Hmm...that was a pretty good deal...but there was always his part of the deal he'd have to keep. He better not get himself in over his head... "How far would I have to bring you?"  
  
Aw crap...she'd hoped he wouldn't ask that. "To the main castle...in the west kingdom."  
  
Inuyasha nearly jumped out of his clothes "That's quite a journey, you know! You want me to bring you all the way over there?!"  
  
"It's your choice!" she tossed back "If you want the reward, you have to earn it! And I don't really know the way home...so I need someone to help me; hence why I asked you."  
  
He sighed and crossed his arms in front of him in a conceding gesture. He wouldn't get attached to her; totally mind over matter. He'd just keep his distance, bring her where she wanted to go, and be off with his prize. "Fine...I'll take you home. But that's it. And you can't just decide not to give me what you promised when get there, wench. Okay?"  
  
"I promise!" Kagome grinned. "So..." she began as they walked off together "Did your wounds heal up yet?"  
  
A/N - Ha ha! No cliffy! ^-^ Yet somehow...I'm feeling very...cliché. ¬_¬ 


	9. Elope?

A/N - Wahahaha! The disclaimer is gone! ^-^ Oof that thing bothered me...¬_¬ And for some weird reason, I didn't notice until now how long chapter seven is. o.o It's like 7,500 words long. Whoa... That's definitely a record for me. And! *sob sob* I didn't post this one in under a week...it took me nine days this time. o Darn...  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Elope?  
  
"Question!"  
  
"No. Don't ask any questions, because I don't want to give any answers!"  
  
"Well I'm going to ask anyway, because I want to know." Kagome stated and quickened her pace a bit. Inuyasha seemed to be walking faster all of a sudden... "I don't have any money, and I don't think you do either, so...how are we going to eat?"  
  
"I'll-"  
  
"No way Inuyasha, you're not going to steal; not while I'm around. So don't even think about it." She admonished.  
  
"Okay..." he grouched. "What is she, a mind reader?" "You can go eat some grass, and I'll get some food for myself off some random farm..."  
  
"Inuyasha..." she sighed and pushed her hands into her apron pockets. He knew that wasn't the point...She didn't want him to steal at all. Would this guy ever learn? "You really shouldn't be..." Kagome's words slowed to a stop and she looked down into her hand as she pulled out of her pocket the two small gold pieces Kaede had given her. Wait...those weren't as small as she remembered. And hadn't Kaede only given her one...?  
  
At that moment, a devious little idea popped into Inuyasha's head. "Hey," he brought himself to a standstill and turned to Kagome as she stopped beside him. "You know how I'm taking you all the way to the western lands? What if I were to say I require a little payment in advance..." he elucidated as he glanced down at the gold pieces in her hand.  
  
"Payment in advance..." she glowered "You never mentioned anything about that. And besides, I don't have anything to give you!"  
  
He gave her a flat look and pointed unceremoniously to her hand. "How about those?"  
  
"Auh!" she gaped, tightly clutching her prize "But we need these for food!"  
  
"Correction; you need me for food. So hand over the money and I'll go nab us something to eat!"  
  
"'Nab' as in steal? From who? Some poor family that's barely getting by with what they have? Inuyasha..." she sighed crossed her arms. "Can't you just skip the stupid 'payment in advance' so we can buy food in stead of stealing it?"  
  
"You can buy food, but I can't, idiot. And you can't accuse me of stealing from the poor - I don't do that! I just borrow from the more wealthy villagers...I'm not evil or anything." He grumbled and slipped his hands into the opposite sleeves. (A/N - You all know that famous little Inuyasha pose. ^_^)  
  
Kagome unfolded her arms, letting them hang fisted and loose at her sides. "What do you mean you can't buy food? I don't plan on using all this money for myself..."  
  
"It's not the money," he sighed impatiently "They won't let me buy food. You still don't get it do you?"  
  
"But I-"Oh wait...that was it, wasn't it? "Is it because you're...what you are?"  
  
Inuyasha made an irritated sound in the back of his throat and twirled in a new direction. "Follow me; I'll get you to the village."  
  
"Oh...okay..." She must have said the wrong thing...hit a soft spot or something. It didn't really surprise her that he was touchy on that subject though; he had the right. It must have been even worse for him than little Hana. For all she knew, he was alone and completely unloved when he was a little boy. An orphan like Hana, but it would have been worse for him, wouldn't it? Being half-demon and all...  
  
He turned around and furrowed his brow at her. "What are you doing? Hurry up!"  
  
By the way he'd looked at her, her face must have been harboring a rather saddened expression. She didn't want to be depressed or anything...that wouldn't help Inuyasha. She had to be cheerful, right? "Coming!" she chirped, slipping a smile onto her face as she jogged up to him.  
  
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her joyful mood before he faced forward and resumed his walking again. "What's with her...?" he wondered.  
  
"So," Kagome piped when she caught up to him "Is the nearest village far?" They had been walking on the same forest path since that morning, and hadn't eaten anything. And judging by how the sun was nearly setting, they should have already been eating.  
  
"No; only several miles or so."  
  
"Several miles?! It'll be dark by the time we get there! The markets close at sunset!"  
  
He shrugged indifferently "So?"  
  
"Inuyasha," she frowned at him "If you knew we'd never get there in time to buy anything, then why are you..." Then it hit her. He'd just been acting like they were going to buy food; playing along whenever she'd mentioned it. But he had planned on stealing whatever he wanted all along! "You jerk! You knew it the whole time! Even when I told you that you shouldn't do it, you still planned on it!" she chided and slugged his arm.  
  
"Hey!" he put his hand over his offended limb "That was uncalled for!"  
  
"You're dodging the topic, aren't you?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"You're a horrible liar you know." She gave him a flat look as she put her hands on her hips.  
  
"Well I'm still right!" he spouted.  
  
"About what?!"  
  
"About...about...I don't know! I'm right about something!" Inuyasha shouted back pitifully.  
  
"You're confusing me!"  
  
"I'm confusing me too!"  
  
"If we're both confused, why are we still shouting?!"  
  
"I don't know!!"  
  
"Neither do I..." Kagome frowned "So let's stop."  
  
Inuyasha stood there, trying to think up a response. He'd almost said a nice little 'sure', but he'd stopped himself before then. He couldn't get comfortable around her no matter what. That was the first step to getting closer to her. So if he avoided that, he avoided her, right? This'd be simple...mind over matter, mind over matter... "This silence is freaking uncomfortable though..." he grouched. And what was really awful, was that he couldn't think of how to respond to her...  
  
So he said the first thing he thought of - despite how he cursed himself for it later. (A/N - Much later. ^_^;) "I'll make a deal with you. There's a way I can get you to the village before nightfall, but you'll have to give me one of those gold pieces for my services. We won't need both of them for food; those are worth a lot." He smirked to himself; he was getting money left and right... "Deal?"  
  
Kagome looked at him suspiciously, analyzing his motives in her head. "How could you possibly get me there in such a short amount of time? That doesn't make any sense." A sharp crease marked her brow and her lips were fixed in a tight line as she looked directly at him. "He must have just made that first part up..."  
  
"What, you think I'm lying?" he scowled. But maybe that wasn't something he could blame her for... "I am part demon you know, I'm not as slow as you humans are. All I have to do is carry you and run."  
  
"You're really that fast? Ooh!" she beamed, quite fascinated. "I guess that'd be okay then...but do you have to take a whole piece? I don't think just one of these will last us all the way home..."  
  
"Sure it will." Inuyasha shrugged "And if it doesn't, you said you were a prince's servant or something...right...? The townspeople will probably help you out..."  
  
Kagome looked down at her feet uncomfortably; she hadn't explained about that yet...It seemed that he felt awkward when he'd spoken of it as well - not to mention a little upset. But if she made up some story and convinced him that she really was a prince's servant, he'd never know that she was really a princess...because if a time came when she'd be forced to tell the real truth to him, she wouldn't have the strength to admit that she'd been faking it the whole time. She didn't like keeping him in the dark, but...  
  
She didn't want him to know she was a princess; if he knew, he'd start treating her differently - just like everyone else. Doubtless not too differently; this was Inuyasha she was talking about. But still...he was someone she'd be spending quite a lot of time with, and she didn't want him to be uncomfortable around her. Even though now they were still in the 'argue all the time' stage, it'd pass; Inuyasha would soften over time. It might take a while...but they'd be friends eventually.  
  
Wouldn't they?  
  
Anyway...she should tell him. Despite how he actually seemed to have been a pinch nicer...lying to him for such a long time wouldn't be a good choice. "Inuyasha, about the whole servant thing...I'm..." she quickly swallowed the little lump in her throat and tried to push aside the sudden -and very strong- urge to keep being a 'prince's servant' in his mind. "Sorry for not telling you about that."  
  
Well, that hadn't worked out exactly how she planned.  
  
He shrugged it off nonchalantly as he got into a crouching position "Forget it and get on."  
  
What...? That hadn't bothered him at all? "Okay..." she walked in back of him and stood there staring hesitantly. What if he planned to drop her in another river...?  
  
"Just get on, damnit!" he growled impatiently. "Stupid girl - I'm not going to bite you or anything."  
  
Kagome jumped a little at his abruptness. Well if he was going to be that way about it... "Inuyasha, sit."  
  
With a few choice words, Inuyasha wrenched himself off the forest floor. "What was that for?!"  
  
"For calling me a 'stupid girl' again! I have a name you know, and it's not 'stupid girl'."  
  
"Bitch...!" he snarled as he finally got into a standing position.  
  
"I swear I'll say it again if you don't stop giving me those repulsive nicknames!" she warned.  
  
"Well, if you hadn't stared at me like I was going to eat you and had just gotten on, I wouldn't have called you stupid!"  
  
"I just didn't know if it was safe!"  
  
"Of course it's safe!"  
  
"'We shall see, what we shall see.'" she quoted, holding one finger in the air. That was another one of her mothers' sayings...  
  
"Whatever..." Inuyasha grumbled, crouching down again. "Get on already."  
  
Kagome climbed onto his back obediently and gripped the material at the back of his neck, keeping them latched there as he got to his feet; a little surprised that he hadn't dragged that argument out any farther. But what was really bothering her was that they'd just wasted a good fifteen minutes quarrelling...  
  
"Hold on." He instructed as he glanced back at her with a slightly evil smirk on his lips.  
  
"Huh? - Aah! Inuyasha, you should have warned me about that!!" she yelped, grasping his haori tighter as she closed her eyes and buried her face between her hands. What was his problem!? Jumping off so suddenly and scaring the living daylights out of her.  
  
"I did, you earsplitting witch!" he cringed as he barked the validation of his anger.  
  
Oops... "Sorry!" she responded in a little more than a whisper. She'd forgotten about his sensitive ears again... But her contrite attitude soon switched over to an awestruck one as she poked her head up and looked down at the landscape below her. "Wow..." she breathed; watching the bare tree's and all their fallen leaves come closer and then farther away from her as Inuyasha landed for a third time and leapt up again. They hadn't been this high up before...  
  
Kagome shivered as the light -but cold, none the less- wind picked up it's pace and blew all but fiercely around the two of them; whipping their hair every which way as they dashed through the skies. She huddled closer to her long haired companion and ducked her head once again in an attempt to hide her face from the unexpectedly frosty wind, and maybe swap some body heat. (A/N - Lucky for her, he didn't really notice. ^ ^;)  
  
She looked to the westward to see how much longer until sunset, and noticed a dark shade of orange in the sky through an opening in the grey clouds. "Inuyasha, the sun's already setting!" she told him over the force of the ghastly winds.  
  
"I know that." he murmured "But it doesn't matter, because we're already here!"  
  
Ahead of them laid a small village, quaint and plain, but very pretty. The remains of harvested crops were spread across the small countryside surrounding it, and the fallen leaves were dancing with the wind on the lifeless grass. Charming little huts were lined up neatly and evenly spread apart, leafless trees scattered here and there. The dirt paths that ran in between and around the huts had larger stones lined up neatly at their edges, making them look quite noteworthy. The villagers must have worked hard to make their little home so eye-catching.  
  
There weren't any people out on this exceptionally breezy day, which didn't surprise her too much. There was though, one elderly gentleman manning his...what was it, an herb cart? Most likely - the jars sitting on it were probably filled with spices and such.  
  
"Alright," Inuyasha began as he landed just inside the edge of the forest and set a shivering Kagome on her feet. "Run over there, get whatever you want, and get back here. Don't take a long time; I want to get as far as possible tonight. Oh yeah, and make sure to grab a couple of potatoes if you see any - Got it?"  
  
"I think so...but why do you want me to get potatoes?" She watched him curiously.  
  
"Because I like them - something wrong with that?" he shot back saucily.  
  
"No, no." she smiled lightly despite how she was shivering; letting the cold wind whisk her hair back and forth across her pale face. "I like them too."  
  
He took a second or two to give her grin the once over. She better not have had to glue that one to her face to make it stick...but no - it looked pretty genuine. Why was she smiling so brightly about potatoes...? Not to mention that her face was positioned almost like Kikyo's when she smiled that way... (Insert sigh here) And she was shaking a lot...was she really that cold? Anyway... "Well, go!" he commanded hastily with a wave of his hand.  
  
His companion shook herself out of la la land and bobbed her head quickly, running down the dirt path into the village.  
  
Kagome rubbed her bare arms as she jogged down the dirt path; aiming for the little cart at the end of it. Once she got over there, she noted that it wasn't an herb cart at all, and all the jars she'd seen were empty - it was a pottery stand. The old man there seemed to be quite stressed - apparently, he was trying to get all his jars and pots into his house before the current weather decided to knock them over and break them. But as she reached him, he stopped his work and looked at her strangely.  
  
"Good evening sir!" she greeted rather loudly over all the ruckus the wind gusts were making. "I'm looking for someone who could sell me a bite to eat! Do you think you could assist me?"  
  
He frowned at her "Well, first young miss, who might you be?"  
  
"Oh excuse me sir!" she curtsied promptly "I am Miss Kagome Higurash-"The young miko quickly slapped a hand over her mouth. "I did it again...!"  
  
The man's eyes widened considerably "You mean the Kagome Higurashi?! Princess of the western kingdom?!" (A/N - Oh darn... there it is again - I made Kagome sound like a cowgirl. ¬_¬;;) He bowed hastily, clearly ashamed "Excuse my manners, noble princess! I did not recognize you! But please spare me my punishment, gracious one! I am but an old man with not much of my life left to live-"  
  
Kagome inwardly sighed - she'd made this mistake countless times. "Please sir, you don't need to worry about being punished or anything like that - I don't have any reason to. But I would greatly appreciate knowing where I could buy something to eat..." she trailed off as she held her hair in her fist; having it constantly whipping across her face was a little annoying...  
  
"Oh, thank you, miss! I'm eternally grateful to you for your kindness! And yes, I know a good lad that would be able to give you a bit of assistance in the area of vittles - he's a courteous young man." (A/N - I just had to have that guy say 'vittles' sometime. XD Note to self: Stop watching 'The Beverly Hillbillies', you're scaring your readers ¬_¬) He grinned good-naturedly as he led her back down the same road she'd come up, and they stopped at the third hut.  
  
The old man knocked on the door and called loudly through it over the noisy winds. "Hey, Renchi! It's me, Bouarakya!"  
  
Not long after, the door opened to reveal a tall, dark- haired boy that looked several years older than Kagome. "Hello Bouarakya," he welcomed warmly as he stepped back and held his arm out for them to enter "Come on in."  
  
Once they were in and seated in a few small wooden chairs in a corner of the fire lit room, the boy turned to Kagome. "So who is it you have brought with you today, Bouarakya?" he smiled as he glanced over at the man to his right, then back to Kagome.  
  
"You best pay your respects lad, this is the heir to the throne of the west before your eyes." The older of the two men informed.  
  
"The princess?!" he exclaimed as he jumped from his seat and examined her carefully "My goodness! It really is her! She fits their description exactly!  
  
Kagome frowned at his last statement "Whose description?"  
  
"That group of officers that stopped by here lets say..." he paused for a second to think "Oh, about two and a half weeks past. They were going about asking for information on the whereabouts of 'The Princess of the West' - they said you were kidnapped or something of the sort. But here you are now!"  
  
Oh goodness gracious...they'd been so close to finding her, but they still hadn't. That was a little frustrating... But before this talkative boy went on any more, she should probably ask for the food, give them the money, and hightail it out of there; in all likelihood, Inuyasha was getting impatient. "I'm sorry to be so blunt...but I'm in a bit of a hurry, and I really need to get food for us, so-"  
  
"Us?" the two men wondered in unison.  
  
"Yeah, me and Inuyasha-"  
  
"Inuyasha...?" and as what they thought was realization hit them, they blurted out their new conclusion. "Princess - did you elope!?"  
  
"Elope...?" Kagome blinked; and at the comprehension of the conclusions they'd ended up with, she corrected them quickly. "N-no!! Inuyasha and I didn't e-elope! I don't even like him that way!!" she looked down at her feet, quite embarrassed. "He's just my guide..."  
  
But at the third mention of someone running away without their parents consent to get married, a young woman -dragging a little boy with her- burst into the room. "Who eloped?!" she shouted her inquiry as she tumbled to a stop - dropping all the vegetables in her arms onto the floor. Kagome turned to stare at the girl several years older than her that was standing in front of them with a six or seven year old boy standing next to her. She was fully equipped with an apron and a work dress, and the boy was in some kind of a robe-ish piece of clothing; both shooting curious glances around the room.  
  
"The princess!" Bouarakya exclaimed and pointed to Kagome.  
  
"I did not! I told you, I don't like I-Inuyasha that way!!" the poor girl was quite flustered by now.  
  
The older girl turned to her with a grin "Sure you don't."  
  
"But I really don't...!!" she cried out in exasperation. Why were they all so positive that she had eloped with Inuyasha!?  
  
"Yeah, right. Mm hm; that's believable-"  
  
"Oh! Excuse me for not making introductions;" Renchi broke in, clearly not wanting to debate for a half an hour whether or not a princess eloped. "Miss Kagome, this is my wife, Shikasa, and my son, Jimoru. Shikasa, this is Princess Kagome of the western lands." (A/N - Doh! There it is again...)  
  
"You're telling me that that ugly lady is a princess...?" Jimoru blinked innocently.  
  
The two men fell off their chairs.  
  
"Jimoru - be respectful!" his father scolded as he climbed back on his seat and turned to Kagome. "Sorry about that..."  
  
"It's okay...eh heh......but um, anyway." she cleared her throat and sat a little straighter in her chair. "Renchi, I was wondering if you happen to have any food that you could sell to me...I don't exactly have any at the moment."  
  
"Sell? Oh no Miss, you don't need to buy it from us!" he waved his hands in front of him. "You can have as much as you like for free."  
  
Kagome shook her head "No, I really couldn't do that..."  
  
"Please! It's our pleasure!" Renchi stood and bowed.  
  
"Well...okay then." She conceded "But not to much! I don't want to take all your food..."  
  
"It's fine, really!" he assured her as he stood up his wife nodding as well. "We have plenty."  
  
Renchi leaned down and picked up the scattered vegetables while Shikasa whispered something to her son, then assisted her husband. He bobbed his head and ran off into another room in the hut, arriving back a few minutes later with a large basket full of fruit. "I got them, mom!" he grinned proudly as he set the basket on the floor next to her.  
  
She nodded silently and enclosed the vegetables in a sack, picking it and the basket up and walking over to Kagome. "Here," she held the items out to her and smiled "Sorry we don't have any extra meat to give you...but the vegetables and fruits grew faster than the weeds this year, so we had plenty of them."  
  
Kagome stood up and returned her smile as she accepted the rather large gifts. "Thank you so much for helping me. But...are you sure you don't want any money for all of this?" she asked, gesturing to the food in her arms.  
  
"No, no!" they shook their heads rapidly in reassurance.  
  
She shrugged, and after a bit of a hiatus, she spoke up "Well, I really need to be going; Inuyasha wanted me to go quickly." She smiled once again and bowed, then turned and ventured back out into the current windstorm. "Goodbye!"  
  
"Bye!" they waved after her as she left "Have a safe trip home!"  
  
"I will! Bye! - Oh...actually, wait!" Kagome stopped and set down the food. "Jimoru; come over here for a second!"  
  
The boy eyed her somewhat carefully, but eventually pranced over and stood in front of her. "What?" he asked confidently.  
  
"Now, Jimoru..." she leaned down to his level, reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the gold pieces. "I want you to take this, but I don't want you to give it to your parents until tomorrow morning, okay? 'Til then, you have to keep it a secret."  
  
He snatched up the gold piece and nodded dutifully. "Yes ma'am!" (A/N - Ha! When I wrote that I thought of Rock Lee...)  
  
"Alright!" she grinned and patted him on the shoulder "Thank you, sir!"  
  
Kagome stood up and watched Jimoru march back and disappear inside the hut. She waved one last goodbye to her friends and turned around briskly; picking up her merchandise and flouncing back along the windy path. Speaking of the wind, it seemed to be dying down...  
  
She closed her eyes and breathed in the fresh air; it smelled so good outside... "Umph!" she flicked her eyes back open and sighed - she should have known Inuyasha's patience would have run out and he would have come to hurry her up...  
  
But the person in front of her wasn't Inuyasha at all.  
  
A/N - What was that chapter? It was like full of nothingness. ¬_¬ Oops.  
  
Oh my goodness. As I was typing this chapter, I had to run over and look at chapter 1 to check and see if I had used the correct information, but as I was looking for the little paragraph I had in mind, I found so many spelling and grammar errors. x.x And there was like six parts where I totally exaggerated the situation. Not to mention that I would use the same expression like 10 times on one page. Ugh - I am so going to re-do the first chapter. Maybe I'll check up on the second and third ones too...Anyway, 'til next chapter, ta ta!  
  
~Eternal White~ 


	10. Marco Polo

A/N - Oh dear mother of cheese. I think I lost like 20 readers with my comment about not hating Kikyo at the end of chapter 7. ¬_¬ Goodness gracious people, I'm not going to bring her back to life or anything! ^_^;; She died, and she's going to stay dead. And to any of you that think that Inuyasha is going to be in love with Kikyo and not Kagome through this entire story, I officially dub you extremely dense!!! Oh, I'd like to thank all the lovely reviewers out there once again, because I got 2 or 3 reviews with constructive criticism. Despite what you may think, I very much like constructive criticism. ^ ^ It helps me improve my writing. So I took a lot of your advice and revamped the other chapters (I think I'm going to go over them one more time though...) and tried to make this one to the best of quality. It took longer...but that's okay. ^_^ So please, if you find any more horrid spelling and grammar mistakes in this chapter, tell me. And if my writing style is driving you crazy, tell me a way to improve it (personally, I think my writing style sucks... ). And I didn't leave a single author note in this chapter - the only ones there are are before and after the chapter. ^-^ in other times, though, I may put in one or two... XD Also, if there are any characters that you want put me in here, (Besides Kouga and Sesshomaru...I plan on putting them in anyway. ^_^) just say so! I'll try to drop them in somewhere...so yeah. Oh... With the constructive criticism, umm...please try to make sure it files under the category 'constructive'. ^ ^;; And Venom...about their moving along so slowly...erm... ^ ^ Well you see, Inuyasha is supposed to be really really calloused, and kind of cold at first... always distancing himself from other people who try to get close to him because... he's tired of all the pain... So it's gotta take Kagome a while to crack his shell... but I think I might be stretching it a little too much, eh? ^ ^; Well, I'd appreciate opinions on that topic too! (Did I happen mention that all the encouragement that you guys have been giving me is wonderful...? ^_^) Thank you!  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Marco Polo  
  
"Nice to see you again," the man smirked "Princess."  
  
"Terashi!" a chill shot through Kagome's body - if he was here, that would mean that there were more of Naraku's men nearby...!! He wasn't the only one that Inuyasha hadn't killed! "What do you want!" she snapped at him, taking a step back and dropping her gifts.  
  
He stepped towards her, shortening the distance between them. "I have a task to carry out." He stated plainly.  
  
"What kind of a task?" she narrowed her eyes at him and took several more steps back.  
  
Terashi shrugged and closed the space once again. "An important one."  
  
Kagome looked at him more warily "Where's Kusaki? He's usually with you, isn't he?"  
  
"Kusaki?" a sly smile slipped onto his unsettling expression "He's around..."  
  
Alright...she was getting a little freaked out. What was with the tone in his voice and that weird aura that seemed to surround him...? She didn't think she should stay here much longer... "I think I should be on my way... you know, so you can do whatever you have to do. I'm sure you're a pretty busy person..." she trailed and brushed past him bravely, picking up the food and walking again. But as she walked, she heard footsteps echoing on the dirt behind her.  
  
He was following her.  
  
Now her panic level was steadily rising; did everything always have to go wrong?  
  
She glanced back at him out of the corner of her eye and pretended to walk casually across to the side of the road, aiming for the edge of the village. "Damn..." she cursed "He's still following..." But he wasn't just matching her pace, he was surmounting it. Not to mention that he was only a yard or two behind her - she was ready to resort to extreme measures by now.  
  
Kagome sped up to more of a jog in an effort to get a little farther away from him. And after noticing once again, that he wasn't just toning her pace, she was a little alarmed. Her only choice left was to run - as fast as she could, as far as she could. So she dropped her food, and did just that.  
  
~~*~~  
  
Inuyasha growled with impatience as he tramped back through the leaves to the spot where he'd told the girl to come back to. But was she there? No. What the fuck was taking her so long...?  
  
He quickly shifted his attention to some movement he'd thought he'd spotted along the path she'd left on...but there wasn't anything there. Probably just the wind...  
  
Since she'd gone, he'd gone a mile or so on several different courses looking for a sanitary creek to get water from (to have with his potatoes), and found it. He'd carved a small tree into five or ten logs, and lit a fire (for cooking his precious spuds on). And he'd done all that at a very leisurely pace, just to waste time, and she still hadn't came back yet!  
  
He huffily hopped up into one of the lower branches in a nearby tree and lay down on the thick bough, slumping his back against the sturdy trunk. If she wasn't back within two minutes, he was going to go find her...  
  
The wind had died down considerably in her absence, but the grey clouds still tenaciously held there places in the darkened sky. The leaves that had been whiling around in their own little tornadoes had calmed themselves, and now skipped about at a much slower pace. And for lack of something to do, he kept his eyes on one leaf in particular, and followed its path as it danced its way across the open farmland, stopping against the bottom of the tree he was resting in.  
  
He sighed halfheartedly as he thought again of the journey ahead of him. It would be a long one...  
  
First, he wanted to head north a little - just to retrieve a certain item that might prove useful. Then they'd have to head straight forward; to the east. And once they reached Lake Hiryuu, they'd have to take a detour through the Southern Kingdom. A sort of dreariness settled over him whenever he reflected of that part of the trip. The South was swarming with wolf demons. Inuyasha cringed as he remembered the sickening scent that they held... those creatures were sickening. Maybe he shouldn't have agreed to bring her back to the western lands...?  
  
Speaking of the girl...her two minutes had been up for at least ten.  
  
So he hopped down from his roost and stretched, glancing down the road to see if just maybe she'd be lucky enough to come back before he went out to get her. But no, she still wasn't there.  
  
"She better have a good reason for not being back by now..." He grumbled. And judging by the scream he'd just heard, she did have a good one.  
  
Inuyasha sprinted towards the source of her cry - unlike he'd expected, it was actually a little ways away from the village...and the closer he got, the more he heard. The more he heard, the more realized what was happening.  
  
~~*~~  
  
She panted as she strained herself to run farther; if she stopped now Terashi would catch her. She knew she could go for a while longer...  
  
Kagome pushed her way under, over, and through the brush as she sped forward over the forest floor; having no real knowledge of where she was going. But she was so scatterbrained right then that she really didn't care where her feet led her - as long as she could keep her legs moving until she got there.  
  
The sun had set and the darkness of night had crept over the horizon, not assisting her as much as she would have liked as she stumbled through the woods. Shadows were covering the ground beneath her, so she didn't know when a pitfall or a stray root would trip her up; hence why she was straining to see. Apparently the moon was hiding behind the clouds. And was her mind playing tricks on her, or was that a clearing ahead of her...?  
  
Kagome brightened a little as she neared the edge of the forest. Running out there would be easier, but it would also be easier for him to see her. Even though the latter downed her mood a bit, she was pretty confident in her speed.  
  
With renewed strength she dashed out of the forest at top velocity. But the slight smile on her face dropped, being replaced with a shocked expression as she stopped upon entering the clearing.  
  
There were several men there...and if she had a guess, she'd say there were there for her.  
  
She turned sharply and sprinted to the right, but one of the men seized her arm and threw her to the ground in the middle of their circle. "You wanted to know what my task was?" Terashi sneered as he caught up with the group. "It was to get you."  
  
She narrowed her eyes at him "Jerk." No matter how nervous she was right then, she was still more angry than anything.  
  
He rolled his shoulders and glanced down at her with a tainted smirk "They told me to bring you back alive...and that they didn't care what condition you were in."  
  
Kagome was getting a little suspicious as to what their motives really were...  
  
One of them stepped towards her and crossed his arms in front of him "So, do you wanna play with us girl?"  
  
Ahh...so that's what they wanted.  
  
Despite how that was what they wanted, it wasn't what she wanted at all. "Stay away from me you perverts!" she screeched and scrambled to her feet.  
  
The men grinned sickeningly and moved closer "This princess brat is a feisty one, ain't she boss?"  
  
Terashi walked over to Kagome until he was only about a foot away from her. "Guess so." He smirked as he grabbed a fistful of the lower half of her dress and started to pull it upwards.  
  
"Don't touch me!!" she shrieked and slapped his hand away; giving his face a hard hit with her other fist. She stumbled backwards cautiously and made sure not to get to close to the other men.  
  
"You bitch!" he growled and rubbed the tender side of his face. "Get her...!!"  
  
And at the order of their superior, they ran forward and grabbed Kagome, pulling at her dress and effortlessly wrestling her to the ground. "Take your hands off me!! Back off...!!" she screamed and squirmed frantically against their solid grips.  
  
"Leave her alone!"  
  
All eyes were fixed on the new figure in the clearing as he stepped up behind Terashi. "Tell them to let go of her Terashi!" he commanded and held the sword to the man's neck.  
  
"Kusaki!!" the older of the two hollered "What the hell do you think you're doing?! This is me! The man who saved your life! Your friend - Terashi!!"  
  
Terashi...  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
"You! You're a trespasser on Lord Naraku's private grounds! The punishment for that is death!" the officer declared and raised his blade. But just as it was about to crash down on the young man...  
  
"Stop."  
  
He spun around to face the person who prohibited him from performing his duty. "Captain Terashi, sir!" he saluted quickly once identifying his higher-ranking officer.  
  
The taller man looked down at the fifteen year old boy, an expression of interest crossing his face. "This kid...he could be of good use to us - being the swordsman that he is."  
  
"This boy...? A swordsman, sir?"  
  
Terashi nodded and pointed to the teenager "Look at his eyes - those aren't the eyes of a peasant boy. We could use him...make him a guard or a soldier; he'll do just fine." He turned back to the other man "You're dismissed, officer."  
  
The official saluted at his leave, and walked off to make his rounds. "So kid..." Terashi turned to him with an amiable grin "What's your name?"  
  
"Inashi Rankeru, sir." He answered and stood a little straighter.  
  
"That's a good name you have. But..." he clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and rubbed his chin with his fingertips. "It's not the name of a swordsman. So from now on, you're Kusaki. That fits you a little better too." The smile returned to his face as he turned and waved for his new companion to follow. "Let's go, Kusaki! You'll be working with me from now on, so I have to get you a good sword and show you the ropes. Several new prisoners came in today, and I have to deal with them...hope you're a quick learner!"  
  
Kusaki returned his smile and trailed obediently after his newfound friend.  
  
~~Flash~~  
  
"It's not true...this man...he isn't him!!" "That's a lie!" Kusaki shouted furiously.  
  
"What do you mean 'a lie'?!"  
  
"I mean that you are not Terashi! The Terashi I knew wasn't like this!" Kusaki bellowed "The Terashi that I knew was never like you! He wouldn't even dream of doing what you do!! Cheating your subordinates in any bet that's made, taking the prisoner's rations for yourself, and harming all these innocent girls." he glanced over at Kagome and back "You're not him!!"  
  
"You better put your sword away, you righteous bastard." He warned "Or Naraku might hear of your actions."  
  
"Tell them to let go of her first!" Kusaki brought the blade closer to his neckline. "Do it now!"  
  
"Ungrateful asshole... Why are you being so fucking protective?"  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about..." He muttered; a little embarrassed.  
  
"Oh, I get it." Terashi scoffed "You're in love with the little prin-"  
  
"Shut up, Terashi!" Oh no...he was getting a little flustered now... "Tell them to let go of her already...!!"  
  
"If I say it, I'll send a report to Naraku on your behavior!" he threatened. "And he won't be happy that the girl got away."  
  
"I don't care."  
  
"...Fine." Terashi glowered, turning to the men "Let her go."  
  
They stood up swiftly, leaving Kagome in a frazzled mess as she moved into a sitting position, staring absorbedly at Kusaki all the while.  
  
"Now promise me that you won't touch her again, and that you won't take her back to Naraku - you and all of them."  
  
"Promise..." he ground through his clenched jaw.  
  
Kusaki raised the sword away from his former companion and sheathed it smoothly. "Go back to the castle, Terashi. And when you send Naraku that message, make sure that you tell him that I think he's a filthy bastard."  
  
Terashi turned to leave, but cast one last glance at Kusaki, who was now going over to the princess, as he called him men. "Maybe...I really am a different person from who I used to be...?" He shook his head as his earlier obstinacy returned to him, and he went back along the road he came - never to bother a certain sixteen year old girl again.  
  
Kusaki bowed respectfully upon reaching Kagome, and extended his hand to pull her up as he greeted her. "Beloved princess, my sincerest apologies and sympathies for all that you have endured this past month. Pray let me be your guide on your journey to your home to compensate for your suffering."  
  
Wow. Why had she asked Inuyasha to bring her home again...? She could just give him that last gold piece and send him off if she wanted; this guy would help for free! He was a lot more polite than Inuyasha too...  
  
"No!" she halted her flow of thought. Kagome couldn't believe she'd even considered that... This guy was nice and all, but... he didn't need her; Inuyasha did.  
  
Or wait...from what she'd caught of the situation, this guy had just quit whatever job he had and left whatever home he had... all just to save her. He could travel with her and Inuyasha if he wanted to... extra company was always good.  
  
And Kusaki...somehow, she felt some sort of a connection with him. There was a feeling floating around inside her that had something to do with this boy... But that wasn't possible - she'd never seen him in her life!  
  
Or had she...? Kagome had to ask... "Have I met you somewhere before...?" she inquired politely as he took her small hands in his strong, nimble grasp and helped her to her feet. "You look very familiar to me."  
  
His long black hair was tied loosely at the back of his neck, and the few wisps that had escaped where floating lightly on the breeze. "You have." He confirmed plainly "Ten years ago was the first time I saw you; collecting dandelions for your mother in the castle courtyards. Four years ago, as you were lying asleep in your bed, was the last time I was to see you. Until a few weeks ago, that is."  
  
"Wait...so you're telling me that you've lived at the castle for six years?" she asked, totally nonplussed.  
  
A distraught half-smile crossed his expression as he released her hands and reached behind his neck and into his robe. "Maybe this will help you to remember..." he said as he pulled his long ponytail in front of him and brought a dagger out of his cloak. And what he did next baffled Kagome even more than she already was.  
  
Kusaki took the small blade and whipped it through his hair - cutting the dark locks from him and letting them blow away in the night breeze. He ruffled what was left of the black mesh and moved his arm back to his side, a brighter smile now lighting up his face. "Do you remember me now, Kagome?"  
  
Her breath caught in her throat, and her body felt frozen. Kagome couldn't believe herself...she'd forgotten; completely forgotten. She'd known something was familiar about him at first...but it hadn't clicked. His voice, hair, height, and demeanor having all changed, recognizing him wasn't as easy as pie. But when he'd cut his mane short just now, it had fallen into place just like it used to. That had sparked something in her. The thing that really made her remember, though...was the smile. There wasn't anyone in the whole world who smiled like him.  
  
Suddenly, all her nerves released, and her body moved on its own. "Inashi!" she squealed as she snatched his wrist and dragged him to a nearby log. "It's been four years...?" she wondered aloud as they sat down "You've changed quite a lot."  
  
"So have you..." he said softly as he brought his hand tenderly to her cheek. He seemed just a little timid though... "You really grew up without me, didn't you?"  
  
Kagome felt flushed and she scooted away a little. He was being so...  
  
"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled as he exploded out of the trees nearby. He stopped at the strange sight before him - quickly narrowing his eyes at Inashi and making a beeline for him; throwing a punch at his face that flung him to the ground. "What do you think you're doing, asshole?!" Inuyasha barked at the injured party.  
  
Inashi jumped to his feet and drew his sword, but Kagome was quick to stop the violence. "Wait, Inuyasha!" she shouted, running over to him and grabbing his raised arm. "Inashi is an old friend of mine - he wasn't hurting me or anything!"  
  
"A friend? Fiend, more like; the guy looked like he was gonna molest you!" he assumed disagreeably.  
  
"He wouldn't do something like that!" she chastised. Inashi sheathed his sword once again; quite flattered that priestess was leaping to his defense. "He just saved me you jerk..." her words slowed to a stop as she replayed Inuyasha's entrance in her mind. No...he didn't... "Did you...call me 'Kagome'?"  
  
"So?" Inuyasha snapped after a pause, yanking his limb out of her grasp "What of it?!"  
  
He did!  
  
"It's just..." she prodded a pebble with her sandal "You never really use my name... It's always 'stupid girl' or 'idiot'... but" she smiled up at him "I'm glad you're trying to be nice!"  
  
"I'm not 'trying to be nice'!" he growled.  
  
She grinned; Inuyasha will be Inuyasha. "Whatever you say!" Kagome whistled; turning and walking over to Inashi. "Are you okay?" she smiled sympathetically "He hit you pretty hard."  
  
"I'm fine..." he answered appreciatively and smiled back at her. "So...is that man your guide?" he pointed through the dark to a perplexed Inuyasha.  
  
Still as perceptive as ever. "He is; but I wouldn't mind having two guides!" Kagome piped cheerfully. "And if you came with us, you could come back to the castle again! I bet Souta misses you too-"  
  
"I can't." he interrupted somberly.  
  
"But Inashi, why not?!" she frowned.  
  
"You know...four years ago..." Kagome listened attentively "I didn't go of my own leave like they told you I did. I was exiled."  
  
She was getting confused... "But that was a mistake, wasn't it? You couldn't have done anything against the law..."  
  
"But I did, Kagome."  
  
"Huh?" she blinked; now she was downright disorientated.  
  
"I did break the law." He looked away from her questioning gaze "I was a spy...for Naraku."  
  
Kagome visibly winced; it felt like someone had stabbed her. Her heartbeat was pounding so loudly in her head that she could barely hear herself think. One of the few people that she'd grown up with and seen everyday... her most beloved childhood friend... the boy she'd grown to love like her own brother...he'd been lying to her all along...?  
  
No... it couldn't be true. There was something wrong with that picture. "Were you doing it of your own free will...?" she asked him weakly.  
  
And the second the words had come out of her mouth, the boy brightened. "She's giving me another chance...!!" "I wasn't." he assured her honestly. "Naraku...he told us that my father had owed him a great debt." Inashi clenched his fists in anger. "And though my mother and I hadn't known it at the time, he'd lied to us; we'd owed him nothing. Naraku had needed spies, so he killed my father and tricked us into working for him. A few times actually, I'd deliberately supplied him with false information. And each time, under Naraku's orders, mother and I would be beaten. I never wanted to do any of the work...but I had no choice." He faced her apologetically. "I'm terribly sorry..."  
  
"It's okay..." she looked back to him through the thick night air, smiling as best as she could. "You can still come home... I'm sure I could convince mother that it wasn't your fault; she'll understand..."  
  
They were silent for a moment, until Inashi unexpectedly picked Kagome up and spun around; laughing merrily all the while. He set the beaming princess back on her feet as he expressed his simple gratitude. "Thank you, Kagome."  
  
"Everything will turn out okay." She smiled forgivingly "But first, I think we need to get you and Inuyasha on better terms..." She twisted to face her first companion, but found instead that he wasn't anywhere in sight. "Inuyasha...?" Kagome listened anxiously "Inuyasha?!"  
  
He wasn't answering...so that either meant that he couldn't hear her because he'd gone too far away, or that he was hiding from her.  
  
And considering how dark it was outside, she'd have quite a time locating him.  
  
Kagome tottered back into the forest a ways, Inashi trailing behind her, and gazed into the dark woods. "Hey! Inuyasha! Where are you?!" and after repeating her statement several times over, she decided to pose a threat. "If you don't come back here within five minutes I'll say 'the word'!"  
  
Five minutes later...  
  
He still hadn't come back. "Goodness..." Kagome groaned and tapped her forehead with her palm. "We should probably just go get him, huh Inashi?"  
  
"How?" he frowned - the simpleton that he was.  
  
How was she going to find him? She was going to play a little game of 'Sit Nangh". She'd say 'sit', and Inuyasha would say 'nangh'. So she'd just follow the 'nanghs' until she found him...  
  
"Sit...?" she said as quietly as possible - just incase he was close by.  
  
Nope - louder. "Sit." She commanded in her normal volume.  
  
Nothing yet... "Sit!" she shouted - but yet again, was given no response.  
  
Well, he brought this upon himself... "Inuyasha, sit!!"  
  
And again, Kagome's glass-shattering scream echoed through the forest and sent a flock of birds to flight.  
  
But along with the twittering of the flabbergasted sparrows, the distant sound of 'Nangh!!' could be heard.  
  
Yep. That was definitely Inuyasha.  
  
Kagome waved for a bewildered Inashi to follow her and headed towards Inuyasha's shouts. "Sit... sit..." she panted the last few quietly as they reached an infuriated Inuyasha...with logs on top of him?  
  
"Inuyasha..." she raised an eyebrow "What were you doing?"  
  
"I was playing fetch with myself." He pulled himself to his feet and shot her an exasperatingly irritated look. "What does it look like I was doing!?"  
  
Well... given that there was a woodchip hanging out of the side of his mouth and he had a small log in his hand, it did look like he'd been playing fetch with himself... "Uhh...."  
  
"I was getting wood for a fire you moron!" he barked snippily, gesturing to the efficiently cut blocks of wood around him. "Now what the fuck was all that for!?"  
  
"Eh heh heh..." Kagome sputtered guiltily. She was starting to think that game hadn't been the best of ideas... she wouldn't have done it if she'd known he had been setting up camp! "Sorry, umm... you see, I thought that you were going to leave me all by myself out here, and I couldn't think of any other way to find you."  
  
Inashi stared at her flatly "And what am I? Chopped liver?"  
  
"What?! Just because that depraved idea of yours was the first thing that came to mind, you slammed my face in the dirt how many times?!" Inuyasha shouted heatedly and stomped up to Kagome.  
  
"Sorry, sorry." She repented glibly "I wouldn't have done it if I'd known you were actually being helpful... And speaking of, let's finish making that fire you started on..." she padded over to the logs and placed them in the center of the small campground, her voice fading as well as did all other sounds for Inuyasha.  
  
"Wait a second... I'm always helpful!!" "Hey, Kagome! What did you mean I was 'actually being helpful'?! I'm a lot more helpful than you give me credit for, wench!"  
  
"Right, Inuyasha. I'm sure you are." She retorted with a saucy smirk.  
  
The bickering between the two of them went on as Inashi, the only one of them that was being productive, chortled at the childishness of it all. Kagome and Inashi eventually went to sleep (with much protest from Inuyasha who didn't want any other people coming with them) while the third member of the group sat awake to keep watch.  
  
And so ended another chaotic day.  
  
A/N - So...much...smiling. -_-;; I actually liked the title for this chapter though. XD 'Marco Polo' = 'Sit Nangh'. ^^ I know I know...it's really corny; but I liked it! And you know, all of this stuff is like a waste - I should really just get to the big plot points, shouldn't I... And did I mention I can't wait 'til the end of this story? I'm not saying I don't like writing it, because I do! ^ ^ But I already have the end figured out...and I love it. I want to write the end NOW. X_X And you know what else is bothering me? How often I start sentences with 'Speaking of..." and "Not to mention..." and "But still...". It's a dreadful bother... ¬_¬ Am I the only one who noticed how that chapter was partially an effect of way to much Fushigi Yugi...? ^^; And I know that chapter had way too much about Inashi in it... About him saving Kagome and not Inuyasha...umm...Well I thought that I was making Inuyasha the 'hero' way too often. ^ ^; it was starting to get kinda cheesy.... One more thing - There are three more paragraphs of author notes below this, and two of them are little descriptions about Terashi and Inashi, and the other one is a little bit of history on a certain lake that just might happen to come up in the storyline later.... *cough cough* But you don't really need to read them. Originally, those were shoved into random parts of this chapter, but with a little advice from a certain reviewer *wink* I decided to throw them at the end where you don't really have to read them. (I'd recommend it though! ^ ^;;)  
  
Okay! Remember from the beginning of this chapter where Inuyasha mentioned Lake Hiryuu? Since it's a tidbit important in later storyline, I figured I should explain it now. ^__^ Hiryuu is the Japanese word for 'flying dragon' - why did I name it 'The Lake of the Flying Dragon'? Firstly, dragons used to roam freely over the northern realm {Note: The northern realm is the large area of land that contains a northern, eastern, southern, and western kingdom. It's where pretty much this entire story is placed.} but they mysteriously disappeared some three or four hundred years ago. All but one giant winged dragon, who remained there, terrorizing any village he could. He was an evil dragon, one that all the people feared and hated. So on one cold winter evening, the four kingdoms rallied together to bring it down - and that was just what they did. The dragon fell dead into the large lake in the center of the four kingdoms, hence its name 'Lake Hiryuu'. But then again, according to a great number of the people, that story is just a legend. *'Oohs' and 'aahs' and 'now I get its'* Yeah...I totally went into 'storyteller mode' there.... ^.^;;  
  
Here's a teeny tiny little picture of Terashi. Tall, dark, and not so handsome. Dark brown hair, and taller than the average person...and he's like 30 years old. He isn't what he used to be... he's very cold now. Uncaring I guess... and if you put him in Kingdom Hearts, he'd probably be Ansim's twin - Just not half as nice looking.  
  
Just because, I want to give you a mental picture of what Inashi looks like, his personality, and all that jazz. {Note in a note: I made him up and he's mine! So don't touch him! ^_^} He's...18 or something. He's a very...pretty guy. His straight black hair is an inch or two lower than his shoulders, and he's got grey eyes. His temper doesn't show itself very often, and he's actually rather shy. A very calm and honest person as well. He's a very loyal person, and for his loyalty to dissipate is extremely abnormal. Strength...? He can wield a sword very skillfully, but he's not the strongest person out there. The end. ^ ^  
  
~Eternal White~  
  
P.S. -- I'm so sorry for taking an eternity to update. ^ ^;;;; I promise the next won't take so long! And you can lob a few flames at me for working on my Inuyasha music video instead of this chapter if you want... . 


	11. On the Road Again

**A/N** - Not a word. -- Not. A. Word.  
  
**Important** - one quick thing. I seriously doubt that all the italics I put in this chapter are going to work, so the first letter of the first word in every paragraph that's all in italics will be in bold print. If the bold print doesn't work, the heck with it - figure it out yourself. -- --- (is very tired)  
  
With You  
  
Chapter 11  
  
On the Road Again  
  
_ The dream I had... it had been a weird one. It wasn't a very realistic dream...  
  
Extremely unrealistic, more like.  
  
I can't remember every detail, but there are certain events that I can recall.  
  
Or rather, certain people with certain expressions and attitudes... and certain feelings I'd had.  
  
Certain people like Inuyasha.  
  
Certain expressions and attitudes, like how Inuyasha and I were laughing together. I don't remember what we were laughing about though...  
  
Certain feelings... like how much I liked it when Inuyasha smiled and laughed that way.  
  
Very strange...  
  
But that wasn't all - it got even more unusual.  
  
For example; there was one part where Inuyasha and I were back near the castle where Naraku had brought us to, and he was telling me something... something about his feelings towards me. I remember that I didn't know how to react to him...I was really confused. He usually isn't so open with me about his feelings - actually, he's never open about anything. Which was why I was so dumbfounded with how he was behaving.  
  
First, he'd stepped towards me and tugged me close to him. His arms had been so strong... and I'd felt so safe... but holding me tight as he was, I really couldn't have pushed away from him if I had wanted to. But I hadn't wanted to leave him...  
  
And then Inuyasha had really put me at a loss. He'd leaned back from the hug and put his hand on my shoulder, and then he'd slowly started to move closer to me. I hadn't known what he was going to do... but when he pressed his lips gently and firmly against my own, I'd gotten as stiff as a brick wall. He'd had his eyes closed, but I hadn't.  
  
Mine had been wide open.  
  
But then another unexpected occurrence came about - the ground between us was cracking...  
  
And you know what the strangest thing of all was? That I had never finished dreaming that dream...  
  
...because I'm still in it.  
  
Alarm rose in both of us as the earth beneath our feet jarred and jerked itself in two directions; leaving Inuyasha and me on separate sides of the dividing land.  
  
My eyesight's starting to blur and all my other senses seem to be fading... But as I subsided to the ground, I could hear Inuyasha shouting to me... I wanted to get up and answer him, but my body wouldn't let me.  
  
And even though I could barely see in front of me, I could feel tears in my eyes... most likely because my sixth sense was shouting that if I didn't get back to Inuyasha right now, I could never see him again... and just thinking about being separated from him forever... it hurts me inside.  
  
My vision's completely black now... and I can't hear anything either.  
  
Wait... I can hear something; someone's saying my name. It's not Inuyasha, but it is someone I'm familiar with.  
  
Whoever this person is...he's holding me. If I could, I'd respond to him...  
  
I want to, but I...  
  
I...  
_  
"Kagome - Kagome!"  
  
_I can hear him...  
_  
"Kagome, wake up!"  
  
_He wants me to wake up...  
_  
"You'll be fine... you're just having a nightmare..."  
  
_A nightmare...? So that means that whoever is talking to me isn't in my dream; they're outside of it...  
  
I should wake up...  
_  
"Kagome!"  
  
I blinked my eyes open rapidly and stared at the boy above me. Why is he holding me on his lap...?! "Inashi, wh-what are you doing...?" I stammered timidly as I sat up and scooted a pace or two away from him on the dewy grass.  
  
He seemed a little surprised, but gave me his answer hurriedly enough. "I'm sorry... you were just... Well you see, first you started sweating and kind of thrashing around... so I um..." he cleared his throat and stared at the blade of grass he was rubbing in between his fingers. "I didn't like seeing you like that, so I tried to wake you up. But just a minute or so ago you started crying... so I sort of..." Inashi made an effort to relax and looked back up at me "Well you know me," he chuckled "I've always liked to keep my eye on you."  
  
I loosened up as well and smiled back at him cheerfully "You've been like the older brother I never had for as long as I can remember - and a much better brother than Souta too!"  
  
I giggled at my own comment, but I noticed that Inashi didn't even crack a smile. He actually seemed sad... "Inashi? What's wrong...?" Had I said something?  
  
He glanced up at me with a pained smile, looking crestfallen as he stood to his feet. I clambered up beside him and caught his sleeve before he walked away. "Um... do you know where Inuyasha went to?" came my ever-so-witty question.  
  
Inashi shrugged; he seemed to be having a hard time keeping that smile on his face... "I think that he went down to the river he found to get more water. It's straight in that direction." He answered, the weak smile still veiling his dejectedness as he pointed me westward.  
  
I nodded appreciatively and flitted off along a scarcely trodden path to find Inuyasha.  
  
I am worried about Inashi... truthfully, I am; I'm really concerned about how he was acting. He usually doesn't get so dispirited like that... but my dream is bugging the heck out of me. I just need to hear Inuyasha insult me or yell at me once; only because the dream Inuyasha really freaked me out.  
  
Well, the dream me kind of scared me too. The way I had felt in the dream hadn't been anywhere near what I really feel. Because I noticed that there was a feeling I'd get every time I was around Inuyasha... and it had been unmistakable when he'd kissed me. That feeling... it must have been something like love.  
  
Now that was more confusing than anything else I had ever dreamt.  
  
How had dream me fallen in love with cold, insensitive, rough Inuyasha? I know that I want to be his friend... but I want to befriend him because that's something he really needs; not because I think he's a wonderful, kind, gentle person. He most certainly isn't any of those things.  
  
But I doubt that he was always like that... I don't think it would have been possible for him to have been the same way he is now when he was a little kid... and-  
  
Oh! I'm already here...?  
  
I picked up the two fish I'd caught along with the full water bucket I made as I stood and started to walk; aiming for the little camp we'd set up last night. Or... the little camp that I'd set up last night. Those two may think they did a lot, but in truth, I did almost everything. I mean, they were standing over the stupid fire (trying to enlarge it) for how long?  
  
My ears pricked attentively as I noticed Kagome prancing up to me from ahead. I'd known she was coming in my direction ever since she turned this way, but I didn't really care. I was busy trying to mentally plan at least the basics of the commencing trip. I hadn't really gotten far... I've been kinda scatterbrained lately.  
  
"Inuyasha...?" she came over and walked next to me. I subtly moved a few inches away from her energetic little form; she was getting a little too close for comfort...  
  
"What?" I grumbled, not sparing her a glance; half in absentmindedness and half in annoyance. Annoyance that she always had to be so friendly...  
  
But out of the corner of my eye I caught the glinted grin that spread across her face. What was she so happy about? "Oh!" she beamed in a 'never mind!' sort of way as she took note of the two trout in my left hand. "Did you catch those, Inuyasha?" she tilted her head "You must have been here for a while..."  
  
"Not really," I sighed edgily "Being half demon, I'm a lot faster than ordinary humans."  
  
Kagome paused for a moment - almost as if she had to think of how to respond - before she shrugged agreeably. "That's right... I had forgotten for a minute."  
  
Forget? How could she forget...?  
  
"What's that?" she blinked and tugged on the handle of the bucket as we walked.  
  
I sighed again "It's for water, idiot."  
  
Kagome turned toward me sharply and narrowed her eyes. "I know that! I was just asking where you-!" she let out a puff of air and directed her gaze forward. "I wanted to know where you got it...that's all."  
  
I stared at her suspiciously; why did she always do that? "I made it - so what?"  
  
She looked back at me sort of doubtfully. There was another mystery emotion in there... can't stand those. "Really?" she asked - eyebrow raised.  
  
I stared at her somewhat flatly "Is it really that hard to believe?"  
  
The grin slipped back onto Kagome's face as her walking developed into skipping. "Oh... not really. I just thought it odd that a tough guy like you would be weaving baskets and buckets... makes you seem kinda... kinda..."  
  
"Kinda what?!"  
  
She stopped and faced me, leaning forward with her hand on her hip in quite the pose as she whispered "Wimpy."  
  
"Hey! Just because I made a bucket doesn't make me wimpy!!" I barked frantically.  
  
But she just turned on her heel and sashayed back down the road to the camp. I followed her the whole way, of course; shouting and objecting as she just kept saying the most annoying little phrases like 'Whatever you say, Inuyasha!' with about as much cockiness as a peacock.  
  
Annoying...  
  
"Inashi! Inuyasha!" Kagome chirped cheerfully as she wobbled into view on the path at the clearing entrance "I got more water!"  
  
We won't mention how long it took her to get it though. I'd already been to the creek to clean up, and it had taken me half the time it took Kagome to get that bucket of water. It did look like it was a bit heavy for her...  
  
"Took you long enough. Haven't you worked a day in your life?"  
  
Apparently this 'Inuyasha' guy had noticed too.  
  
"Here, Kagome," I dropped the fish bones I had been picking up and jogged over to her; earning myself a strange look from Inuyasha. "I'll take that."  
  
"Oh," she smiled and lifted the filled pail as high as her little arms would allow "Thanks, Inashi."  
  
I returned her friendly gesture as I took the water and poured it slowly over the fire. Yet another reminder that Kagome thought of me as a 'friend', and only a 'friend'. Nothing more.  
  
I sighed... Little did she know, I'd had feelings for her within a year of knowing her. At first it was only a child's affection... being only 9 years of age it couldn't have been much more than that. But it had developed as I got older; especially when I was around 13 and 14 years of age. Kagome was only 12 when I left... but she was exceptionally mature for her age. She was... well, very different from any other girls I'd met. Always joyful and pleasant, always playful and outgoing, and always thinking about somebody else. Even at that age she cared about her friends and family more than herself... though I don't think she really knows it.  
  
I set the bucket on the ground and glanced over at her. She's grown up so much since then... and to think I thought she was good-looking 4 years ago; now she's a lot more than just attractive. She's beautiful... which is why it really doesn't surprise me that she hasn't showed any signs of feeling the way I do. She's so perfect, and I'm just... me. Hoping to win a heart like hers is rather selfish anyway...  
  
But I had to wonder about her and that guy. I noticed how protective he is of her and how friendly she is to him... but I really can't tell if there's anything between them. I'm pretty sure that they've only known each other since they met in Naraku's castle, so I doubt that there's any real relationship there.  
  
Besides... he isn't a very agreeable person. And he's quite insensitive and rude, and he's got that closed-off attitude. While Kagome had been getting water I'd asked him about where he planned on heading first - he'd answered me with a grunt and "Bug off - mind your own business." I don't know why he sticks around her... or maybe Kagome's the one sticking around him...?  
  
I hope not.  
  
"Hey," I turned to face her as she tapped me on the shoulder "Are you okay?"  
  
I nodded hurriedly and smiled at her worried expression "I'm fine, I'm fine."  
  
She frowned "You don't look fine."  
  
"No really, I'm-."  
  
"C'mon, let's go! We need to get moving." Inuyasha growled "And somebody make sure they grab that water bucket." Kagome glanced hesitantly at me and padded up next to the bad- tempered male.  
  
I shrugged and picked up the pail, trailing along behind her.  
  
We walked for quite a while, a chilling wind blowing through the air as we went. My dress was terribly dirty, and my hair a frazzled mess, but it really didn't bother me too much.  
  
Noon was passing quickly, but it didn't leave before we had a little bite of lunch. We'd went back and found the food I'd been given and snacked on a couple of apples as we walked. I'd hidden the potatoes in the bottom of the vegetable bag so Inuyasha wouldn't know I'd gotten them, and he seemed a little upset with me when he didn't find them. But I plan to cook them special for dinner tonight while he's off finding water and such.  
  
At home, mother would have me cook the meals for the nobleman and princes that she would have come to see me; she always told me that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach, so why not try that theory out on Inuyasha?  
  
I smiled slyly to myself and chomped another bite of my apple, the previously uncomfortable silence not so uncomfortable anymore.  
  
But as I looked at the two boys on either side of me, and noticed that they still seemed a little uneasy. So I decided to perk up a conversation; "Hey Inuyasha," they both looked at me "Where do you plan on heading to first?"  
  
"I want to head north east and pick up something of mine." He eyed me suspiciously "Why?"  
  
I ignored his query and made another of my own "What do you have to pick up?"  
  
"Something that I might need."  
  
"Well..." he was clearly dodging the question. But then again, I had dodged his too... "What is it? Extra food, money, a weapon..."  
  
"A weapon." He answered edgily "Now quit the questions."  
  
For fear of him getting upset with me, I halted my flow of inquiries towards him and directed them towards Inashi. There had been on that was nagging at me for a while... "Inashi, when I was still in prison, you know how you had been giving me my meals for a while?"  
  
He nodded meekly.  
  
"Why did you stop?"  
  
My question seemed to have made him feel awkward, because he stared at the ground ahead of him as he walked a bit slower. "I was replaced because I wasn't exactly following orders..."  
  
I gave him a confused look; what did he mean he hadn't been following orders?  
  
He took note of my expression and continued "I had been trading rations. I was giving you rations that you weren't supposed to have, and often drop you some extra..." he fidgeted "Let's just say they weren't too happy with me. Partly because the extra you'd gotten had been their snacks - so they took me off the job. I was then just assigned to patrol the halls and be on hand if they needed me."  
  
Trading rations...? "Who had you traded rations with? I don't understand... you didn't take food from the other prisoners for me, did you?" Please God, let him say he didn't! I'd feel so guilty...  
  
Inashi faced me quickly and shook his head "No, no, Kagome, I wouldn't take from them. I gave you my rations-!"  
  
Seeing the surprised expression I was wearing, he quickly stopped himself and turned forward again. "It's of no importance... it was just a little food-."  
  
"It is a big deal." I told him softly. It really flattered me that he would do something so kind and self- sacrificing.  
  
But that was where the conversation ended - not another word was said for hours.  
  
I sighed wearily as I gave one last kick to the pebble I had been prodding along in front of me for a good ten minutes. I didn't feel like planning the journey... and - strange as it was - I actually wanted to talk about something. I was so freakishly bored I could have talked to the trees... but I didn't, of course. So the three of us went on in silence, just like we'd been doing for the past few hours. I didn't think I'd ever wanted to talk so much in my life.  
  
So... what should we do first; find a spot to stop and take a short dinner break, or walk for another hour or two? If we went on for a while longer we could make it to where I've got that sword hidden, but finding a good camp ground and a clean creek might be difficult after sunset. But if we stopped to eat now we'd have to wait until tomorrow to get that sword... either that or I miss dinner.  
  
Not an option. Sword it is!  
  
Two hours later...  
  
I stopped rather swiftly and faced Kagome and what's-his- face as they halted a few steps ahead. "Wait here - I'll be back in a few minutes." Was the comment I left with them as I leapt up onto a high tree branch and flew through the forest across the boughs. Kagome had given several shouts as I was leaving, and though I wasn't deliberately ignoring her, I was in a bit of a hurry. She could wait 'til I got back.  
  
I sniffed the air for the scent of the willow tree where the item I was seeking was located, and after several more jumps I reached it. Ah yes... that ancient old willow that I'd slept in so many times... Now all I had to do was remember where I left that sword...  
  
After doing some digging, tree searching, and pacing while making desperate attempts to remember where I left the damn blade, I tripped over a rather large stick and fell flat on my face - getting a mouthful of crusty autumn leaves along with all the dirt under my tongue. But as I looked vengefully back at the audacious stick, I took note of how black the thing looked; too black.  
  
I scrambled to my knees and spat the foliage out of my mouth as I stared at the half hidden item. It was the scabbard!  
  
Snatching it up triumphantly I hopped to my feet - but the sheathed sword seemed... light. The thing felt like it was...  
  
I held it up and looked inside.  
  
...empty.  
  
I cursed angrily and threw the empty case against the willow trunk. "Where is it!?" I shouted in rage.  
  
"I believe that this is what you are searching for."  
  
I spun at the sound of the young voice, looking frantically around me; but there wasn't anyone in sight.  
  
"I'm right here."  
  
I jumped and turned quickly to face the small girl that had stood behind me. She wore a long white kimono, had a white flower in her white hair, and even a mirror with a matching white frame. Wow. Give her some white wings, get rid of that creepy emotional deficiency on her face, and voila; you've got yourself a miniature angel. But nonetheless, I just had to ask... "Who the hell are you?!" I growled and hopped into a defensive stance; my eyes darting between her and the sheath-less rusted piece of crap that was... was floating in front of her mirror.  
  
"My name is Kanna." She answered with that impassive, deadpan air.  
  
Since she seemed fairly harmless, I decided I could let down my guard a bit. Although that little sneak-behind-my-back- and-scare-that-pants-off-of-me trick had unnerved me a little, I figured that hide-and-seek was probably the only game she knew how to play.  
  
"Okay, kid," I stood straighter and held out a clawed hand "Let's just do this the easy way. You give me that sword, and I promise not to shred you."  
  
She stood motionless as the blade's tip slowly started to... what the...!?  
  
I leapt forward and haplessly tried to grab the hilt before the sword was completely sucked into the mirror, but to no avail. The white haired girl stepped back and stared blankly at my angry expression. "I do not wish to give it to you." She stated simply.  
  
"Well that's just to bad!" I seethed as I slashed at her mirror. But every time I attacked, it seemed to just suck it up. She'd keep hopping backwards, I'd keep slicing forwards, but I didn't seem to be getting anywhere.  
  
I jumped up and slashed "Sankontetsou!" at her as forcefully as I could. But the attack that could have executed a couple dozen people was only to be drawn right into her mirror. She remained straight faced and held up her mirror to face directly at me.  
  
And that was when I realized what a huge mistake I'd made.  
  
A/N - Alright! For those of you who didn't get to read this little section of the author note that I have replaced with this chapter...... I need opinions and preferences. Here's the dilemma: I have this song that fits perfectly with the last/second last chapter (And to anyone that thinks I may have already written this whole story and I'm just keeping all my other chapters from you for no sensible reason, the answer is a big fat NO! I haven't written that far yet. . I've just been planning the last chapter for a while... Actually, the last few chapters are what kind of started this story. . I'm so excited about writing them!! XD) and I want to know if you think it's a good idea for me to do one of those things where you... you know, write a line or two of the song, and then write a couple lines of the story, then write another line or so of the song, and another of the story, and so on and so on. Either that or just write the story straight - no song. And actually, I could even do both of the options if there's an equal amount of people voting on each side. AND I'd like to know if you want Sango and Miroku to be... erm, key characters in this story, (like kinda make their relationship at least half as important as Inuyasha and Kagome's) or if I should put them in and just kinda... have them there. . So please give me your opinions and tell me your preferences, because I'd really like to write what you peoples like best! Thank you!  
  
And with the Sango and Miroku issue, yes, they're coming soon enough.


	12. What She Never Knew

**A/N** - Like, oh m'gosh, I'm finally updating! gasp

With You

Chapter 12

What She Never Knew

"Where is he going?" Kagome frowned perplexedly. Inuyasha had more impudence than a donkey if he was going to run off and tell them to just stay put. He should have known by now that no matter where he went, she was going to stick to him like a leech.

Kagome turned to Inashi and smiled, "So, what do you think? Should we follow him?"

"Why not?" he laughed, amused with her mischievous behavior.

They started off quickly, guessing for the most part which way to go. _I wonder why he ran off so suddenly…_ Kagome wondered, _Maybe it had something to do with that weapon or whatever that he had been talking about. But then why did he leave Inashi and me here?_ She sighed as she tramped through the dense forest; Inuyasha was impossible for her to understand.

Kagome looked at Inashi, about to inquire as to whether or not he thought they were on the right track, only to find him staring at her. "What?" she chortled, raising and eyebrow.

Inashi blinked at her and smiled timidly, saying it was nothing. But a few minutes later, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Kagome, wait…" he told her as he stared into the trees around them. "There's someone here."

"What do you mean?" Kagome stepped to face him, "Is someone following us?"

He didn't answer her, only kept looking warily into the woods.

"Inashi, what is it?" she joined him in scanning the area around her, "Don't you think that it might just be some sort of an animal or something?"

Inashi shook his head "It's no animal."

"What is it then?"

He gave her an odd look and questioned slowly, "Do you feel anything…strange?"

"What do you mean by 'strange'?" she quirked an eyebrow.

"Something unusual; something you wouldn't normally feel."

Kagome frowned, but continued to nod uncertainly. "What are you implying?"

He looked back at the trees, "Kagome, as you grow older, though you may already know this, your spiritual awareness matures and bit by bit, you are aware of and understand more of what the average human would not."

"Meaning…?"

"Meaning," he continued patiently, looking back at her and smiling, "That you'll develop the ability to sense demons and spirits and such. Right now, for example, you said that you felt something strange, correct? So if I had one guess, I'd say that what you felt was a demon, and we're being tracked by it."

A slight shiver zipped through Kagome's thin frame. That 'strange feeling' was getting more intense by the minute. Their pursuer was coming nearer at a quick pace. "Inashi, I think we need to start running."

"Let's go."

A blinding flash of light from the girls mirror pierced Inuyasha's eyes, but that was insignificant compared to what he experienced otherwise. Four razor-sharp beams of energy raced towards him, and his body was instantly thrown to the ground; tearing long sections of his gi and leaving deep cuts in his skin.

"D-damnit…" he cursed and forced himself to sit upright. What the hell was that…?

"My mirror," Kanna began, "Can either absorb or reflect all of your long range attacks, depending on which I choose. Upon your attacking and my choosing to reflect, your own attack will be shot straight back, directed at you, faster than you can escape it." He dragged himself to his feet, ignoring the pain as she calmly continued, "So, therefore, your attacks against me are worthless. You are hurting only yourself."

Inuyasha growled in frustrated resolve, still determined to get what he came for. He leapt forward again, but instead of using one of his more powerful attacks, he headed straight for the girl - intending to hit her directly.

But all that his arm struck was the air in front of him. Inuyasha spun to her composed voice behind him once again, "You cannot win that way either."

He jumped at her a third time, but she seemingly disappeared as he slashed at her. "You are not listening to what I am telling you."

Inuyasha was starting to get aggravated - why couldn't he just snatch a stupid sword from a little girl?! Well, one thing was for sure; he wasn't going anywhere until he got it.

And that was when he got a dangerous idea…

Kagome sped breathlessly behind Inashi through the forest. She knew that whatever was following them was faster than they were, and it was scaring her more as time passed. That, and how she was sure that they were moving _away_ form Inuyasha.

"Inashi," she panted, "We're not heading towards Inuyasha! We need to turn!"

"I know."

"Well, then let's turn…!" she grabbed his sleeve and tried in vain to tug him to her left.

"I know," he repeated inattentively, "But we can't."

"Why?"

He seemed distant as he answered her, "We don't have enough time!"

"What?"

"We've got to get to somewhere open… a prairie… a meadow, maybe… even a swamp would do…"

_Huh?_

"The crest… the emerald crest… it's our only chance…"

What in the world was he talking about?

Kagome couldn't tear her eyes away from him as they ran; he was sweating profusely and his breath was coming out in ragged pants. He was clutching something tightly in his hand as he mumbled something under his breath. He was starting to scare her.

"Ah!' Kagome gasped as she tripped over who-knows-what and fell to the ground--the result of not watching where she was going.

Inashi stopped and turned, rushing to her and grabbing her hand to pull her to her feet. He dragged her in his wake so she wouldn't fall behind as he began to run once again. And that was when Kagome felt it.

The demon was less than 100 meters behind them.

How long had Inuyasha been battling for? Seconds? Minutes? Hours? He'd completely lost track of time. Although he could guess that he'd wasted quite a bit of it; which was why he was pleading with fate to let his plan work.

He kinda wondered, though, what would happen if his idea didn't, well… go the way he was planning it to. Would he be severely injured yet again? Or perhaps die? And what would happen to the girl?

Waaait…

Not _that_ again.

Inuyasha groaned to himself and tried to ignore the smiley little face that kept popping into his head. Now was definitely not the time for this.

He took a deep breath and prepared to jump - now was the time to take a chance; a very big chance. But hey, he had been born to live dangerously - risking his life was on his everyday 'to-do list'. So here went _something_…

Inuyasha leapt off the ground and raised his arm once again, mustering all his strength into one diagonal slash as he shouted, "Sankontetsou!!"

He smirked to himself as he hunched down once connecting with the ground, because even though these quite possibly could have been the last few seconds of his life, he couldn't help but enjoy the look of utter confusion that spread over the generally emotionally void face of the small, white girl. She stared at him bemusedly and held her mirror in front of her so to reflect his attack; and that was exactly what it did.

He watched for exactly the right moment, exactly the right time, and soon enough, he saw it. As the blades of energy sped towards him, he stood quickly and countered his attack with none other than his own attack--Sankontetsou. But, much to Inuyasha's annoyance and anger, his second attack did nothing to the first but split each of the energy blades in half, now resulting in eight smaller, but less powerful beams.

Inuyasha took a deep breath and leapt forward--straight into Sankontetsou.

He was hit by 3 of them at full force, but made himself finish what he's started anyway, because as soon as he'd broken through his attack, Kanna was entirely vulnerable. She fell to the ground as his clawed fist hit her, but he backed off as soon as he had grabbed the sword. There was no need to kill her--little had he realized that his punch hit her hard enough to knock her out. If he ever saw her around causing trouble again though, he'd finish her off for sure.

A sharp chill ran down Kagome's spine as Inashi tugged her through the brush by her chilled hand. She could clearly feel how close the demon was, and how much closer it was getting by the second.

75 meters.

"Inashi!" He didn't respond. "Inashi, listen to me!"

Kagome looked at him pointedly as he sprinted through the brush. Whatever he was holding in his other hand was beginning to glow some sort of a greenish color, sorta emerald-ish… wait; emerald?

50 meters.

Way to close for Kagome's comfort. She shivered as the wind around them seemed to steadily pick up its pace. "Inashi Rankeru, I think you should know that whatever happens to be following us is less than 50 meters away-!"

Kagome was cut off when Inashi stopped abruptly as they entered an open field. Despite her efforts to cease movement, though, she ended up running flat into him with an exaggerated 'oomph'.

"Way to tell me you're going to stop…" she groused snippily whilst rubbing her offended nose; but he didn't seem to be listening.

Very unlike him…

He suddenly snapped to face her and clamped his hands onto her shoulders firmly, "You have to hide somewhere!"

"W-why?!" she yelped, stepping away.

"Because it's coming! Please, _go now_!" he pleaded.

She had to listen to him--she had no choice.

Kagome turned from Inashi and ran through the long grass. She kept going until she was far enough away to satisfy him, but he was still within the range of her eyesight. She ducked behind a large patch of shrubs and mangled bushes, peeking through to see Inashi still watching where she had run.

He soon raised his gaze to the clouds above him and opened his hand. The small, green, glowing jewel that he had been clutching in his fingers seemed to rise into the air; moving higher and higher. She observed the emerald with growing anticipation as the flickering light that surrounded it grew and flashed brightly.

Kagome examined Inashi as she saw his lips begin to move, but she couldn't hear the words he was speaking. They eventually reached her ears, though, and the volume of his voice was raising itself as the jewel brightened.

She couldn't understand what he was saying… he wasn't speaking Japanese--he was speaking something foreign. Very foreign. Her tutors had taught her over 7 languages, which she was now all fluent in, and that wasn't any one of them.

But as all of this was happening, Kagome noticed a drastic change in the wind. It was now blowing rather forcefully around her and whipping her hair every which way as she tried unsuccessfully to contain it between her hands--and at that moment, something appeared.

No, not some_thing_… rather, some_one_.

The demon.

Inuyasha sniffed the air impatiently and tried to pick up Kagome's scent, but it was awfully distant. She couldn't have been anywhere near where he would have thought her to be.

He was off in her direction in seconds though; following the fragrance that his nose stubbornly refused to forget.

Upon returning to the path that he'd left her and that boy on, he noticed something. They'd ran in completely the opposite direction he'd gone in.

Why would they do that?

He had to consider this… but not now, later. He seemed to have just picked up on the scent of another little not-so-good something--the smell of a mildly impressive demon. Whether it would be of any real danger to those two or not, he couldn't tell, but he sure wasn't going to risk his ticket to a boatload of gold getting killed.

He sped along the path that her scent fell on, but frowned at how he tired much quicker than he normally would have. "Damnit…" he cursed as he tentatively put the back of his claw to one of his wounds. Duh. He should have known he wouldn't get too far with those…

Until then, the he had been able to avoid the pain, but now…? It was bothering him a great deal more than he could put up with. He decided to slow his pace a bit as to not open the cuts any more, and tore off strips of his white gi to tie around his injuries until he found a minute to take care of them. He could hold up 'til he found his traveling cohorts.

But… his suspicions of a strong demon slowly grew as he felt the wind blow.

It was all happening so fast… everything was just one big blur.

The demon was a woman; one who apparently had the power to control the wind. Inashi was only a man… did he even have a fighting chance?

Kagome had watched with dread as Inashi was continually attacked by the woman with rapidly approaching blades of wind. She could see the pain etched into his features as he was mercilessly attacked.

He had tried to fight back, of course, but her advantage of being able to take to the air when he couldn't made it nearly impossible to attack her with his sword alone.

But the jewel…the emerald that he had been using… had disappeared the moment she arrived.

Had Inashi hidden it? Had he destroyed it? Had it simply vanished from existence? Kagome had no idea.

Right now, though… all she really knew was that there must have been some way for her to help him. At this rate, Inashi was probably going to die. She had to do something.

What if it so happened that he had the jewel? She didn't really know what he had been doing with it before this demon woman came, but he must have had something up his sleeve for him to bother with it at all. Perhaps she could create some sort of a diversion, a distraction. Anything to temporarily deter the attention of the wind-demon. But what in the world could she do?

At times like this, usually, something would come to Kagome. An idea would hit her like a brick and she'd have it all planned out and executed in seconds time. But sadly, today wasn't one of those bright days. She couldn't think of a thing. The only person that came to mind that she knew would know just how to deal with a situation like this one was Inuyasha…

Inuyasha!

That was it--all that she had to do was get him. He was half demon, right? Surely a guy like him could beat this girlie to a pulp.

Without a second thought, Kagome leapt out of her refuge in the undergrowth and ran back towards the forest where she remembered that they had come from.

But that was a decision that she came to regret about three whole seconds later.

She was stopped in her tracks as a wide oak fell three feet in front of her. "Hey!" she barked as she began to turn "That was a serious attempt on my lif--ah!" she squeaked and dived out of the way of a falling maple. This lady really _was_ out to get her…

Inashi looked up agitatedly from where the woman had knocked him down. "Ka-Kagome!!" he rasped, clutching the bloodstained cloth of his shirt. "Don't go near her! Get away from this place, quickly!!"

Kagome turned to see him standing on unsteady limbs and yelling for her to run. But as she looked at him… she knew that she couldn't. Running now would mean leaving him to certain death. The moment she had gotten away, the demon wouldn't hesitate to kill him--her childhood friend would die alone.

She didn't have time to find Inuyasha… that wouldn't do her any good. All she could do was wish that he would come to find them soon.

She dived past yet another tree that the woman had felled near her and dashed towards Inashi. He shook his head furiously and waved her off, but she kept moving. Foliage was being whirled at her fiercely, but she managed to avoid getting hit with anything more than a couple of tree branches.

"You--you shouldn't have come out here!! Please, go back!" his fear for her was beginning to show on his face "I don't want you to get killed along with me!"

"Don't think like that!" she tried to smile, but her uncertainly showed through it "We'll be fine!"

But while they were arguing, a certain wind demon's frustration was only growing. She raised her wind fan and unleashed her attach on her unsuspecting male victim.

Inashi turned a second too late as the wind blades connected with his back--knocking him forward to his hands and knees. It took him everything not to yell from the pain.

Kagome dropped to her knees and reached to touch his arm. It… hurt so much to see him this way. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to say. She couldn't help him.

Kagome started as she was pushed flat to the ground by Inashi, who was now leaning over her with his hands on either side of her. Her body was frozen in place as she saw him cringe and release a strangled cry when several more of the wind blades hit him. His whole body was shaking as he spoke the best that he could. "I'll c-can't let you die…!!"

Inashi half-fell to the ground and Kagome quickly got up to her knees. Her head turned just in time to see the woman attacking again. Kagome couldn't let her hurt him again. Not for her.

She quickly moved in front of Inashi, her back facing the attack. This might be--

…nothing…?

Kagome turned around in puzzlement; why hadn't she been hit?

There was nothing in sight that she would have imagined would be able to stop the blow…so what did?

She turned back to Inashi who was staring at her in surprise. "You…"

"What just happened?" Kagome asked bluntly.

He tried smiling "You created a barrier, I think…"

"Perish!!"

They both turned simultaneously as the demon attacked again. "Don't!!" Kagome shouted, automatically throwing her arms in front of her--she was astonished to find a half-transparent wall of....well, wall of something, form in front of her. The attack had been blocked.

But the woman, refusing to relent, continued to try and attack them. Every time, the barrier went up again--shielding Kagome for a good 5 foot distance in every direction, also protecting Inashi. "Inashi, it works!"

She would have expected him to smile and agree… but he didn't. "It won't last much longer, Kagome."

"What do you mean? Of course it will! Won't it?" She frowned worriedly "It's lasted this far--why won't it respond infinitely?"

"Watch it." He gestured with his head as he pulled himself to his knees. "It's growing smaller every time. You're power has an end, you know." He flinched when he tried to get to his feet and dropped down again.

She drew her hand to her mouth "You're hurt so terribly…"

"Don't worry about it." He smiled weakly. "But we need to do something. Now."

"Right." She nodded, noticing with discouragement how quickly the twenty-five area space she had only a minute earlier had diminished to an extremely unimpressive eight. "Here," she got to her knees next to him "We'll go over there-."

He shook his head disapprovingly "Not enough time."

"Inashi…?!" Kagome whimpered.

"I need to use the crest." He looked to the ground "Remember that jewel I had?"

She nodded.

"There's something inside of that that I guarantee will kill the demon, and you'll be safe. I just need you to keep a barrier. After that, you won't need it anymore."

"Um, okay." She nodded obediently "Just keep a barrier."

"Yeah. Oh, and Kagome…" he faced her with a distressed expression suddenly tainting his features "When this is over, make sure you get home. Stay with that Inu guy… he should be able to bring you there…"

"Inashi… I don't understand. You're coming with us--."

Inashi leaned forward and pulled her into a tight hug. "No…I'm not."

Kagome couldn't stop looking at his face as he pulled away.

He was crying.

"Inashi, tell me what--."

He pushed her away from him and stood, the jewel suddenly appearing in his hand. "I… hope you find happiness, Kagome."

Kagome felt herself shake, "I-Inashi, what's happening--?"

"I may never be here again, and I know that you'll find someone perfect and fall in love some day while I'm gone, but I need to tell you…"

She tried to stand as he spoke "Inashi--!"

"That I love you." He looked up at her, smiling brighter than ever "I always have."

And with that he closed his eyes, and was gone.

**A/N** - BWAhahahahahHA! Major cliffy. P I know, I'm an evil person. But for all of you out there that think she might love him back… let me give you a little heads up. We like to call what he feels for her 'unrequited love'. Yeah. And for those of you that don't know what that means, go look it up. Right now. Didn't I say this is an Inu/Kag fic? Well, that's because it is. I just haven't gotten to the part where they actually start to _like_ each other yet…. But honestly, I had to kill this guy off (he was SO in the way), and I just couldn't help myself from being so dramatic. But you all can be happy now--he's gone!!! D

And before anybody says anything or bites my head off, yes--I know that I took like half a year to update, but I'm truly sorry. I was insanely busy, and honestly--most of the time I didn't have as much motivation to write as I did to make a super-de-duper Inuyasha music video. Did I ever finish it? No, not yet--most likely because it was accidentally erased by a certain sibling of mine cough little sister cough THREE times when I was like more than half way through with putting it together and editing. I seem to like it better each time that I redo it though…. Idk. Again, I apologize for the insane wait, and I'll will try my very, very hardest to be quicker--much quicker. I'm finally setting in to high school, so yeah…. I'm getting the hang of things. I think I might have a bit more time a night. (of the 2 to 3 nights a week that I actually, on occasion, have an hour or so to spare for my drawing, piano, and writing) other things just seem to take super priority sometimes. Sorry!

Well, anyway, hope y'all liked the chapter! Thanks so much for reading!!!

The Riceball Who Lost Her Fruitdrop

PS -- Excuse my uh… lack of knowledge on Kagura. I haven't seen Inuyasha all the way through since a year or two ago, so my memory's a pinch rusty. . My apologies.


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